Data Science Lead

William Reed Ltd; London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

William Reed is seeking a Data Scientist to lead its data team in London/Brighton/Crawley. This role involves shaping the company's data strategy, overseeing data pipelines, deploying machine learning models, and enhancing product capabilities through innovative data solutions. Ideal candidates will have strong leadership skills and advanced expertise in Python and machine learning.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

MeDay for personal time

Volunteer day

Hybrid working opportunity

Contributory Pension

Life Assurance Scheme

Wellbeing benefits

Cycle to Work Scheme

Enhanced family-friendly leave pay

Electric Car Scheme

Qualifications

• Strong experience leading applied data science projects.
• Proven experience with machine learning and LLMs.
• Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable data pipelines.
• Oversee a team of data analysts.
• Drive product strategy using data science.

Skills

Data Science Leadership

Stakeholder Management

Mentoring

Machine Learning

Python

SQL

Data Modelling

Cloud Platforms

Tools

Azure

Job description

Company Description

Who we are

We are William Reed.

We are a global media group delivering exceptional content through events, digital, data & insight.

From agribusiness, ingredients and food processing, to retail, hospitality & fine dining - we provide the inspiration, insight and connections to power our customers' success.

We have offices in Gatwick, Brighton and London, UK; Montpellier, France; Singapore and Chicago, US. In line with the Company's current Agile Working Policy, the successful candidate would be eligible to work part of the week from one of our UK offices and to work remotely for the rest of the week.

Position

Position: Full time - permanent

Location: London / Brighton / Crawley / Hybrid

We are looking for a Data Scientist to lead Lumina Intelligence's data team, providing an opportunity to shape and grow our data strategy.

Lumina Intelligence is a highly ambitious and leading food & drink consultancy providing insights for global markets and enabling its clients to understand their consumers, competitors, and markets in the way that facilitates growth. It provides subscription data products, maintaining the highest quality of data and continuously enhancing the way customers access and apply its insights.

As the Data Science Lead, you'll be responsible for overseeing the full lifecycle of data from acquisition and transformation to advanced analysis and deployment ensuring it delivers maximum value for our products and clients.

This role plays a critical part in scaling our data capabilities, embedding AI-driven innovation, and aligning our data infrastructure and strategy with business goals. You'll also contribute to product strategy; helping shape the future of our insight platforms and developing innovative data solutions that differentiate Lumina's offerings in the market.

What you'll be doing:

• Designing and maintaining scalable data pipelines and infrastructure to support structured, analysis-ready data
• Designing and deploying end-to-end machine learning models from data preparation and feature engineering to model training, evaluation, and monitoring
• Overseeing a team of three data analysts and collaborating closely with business analysis and developers across William Reed
• Setting out a strategic vision and priorities for the data team and creating a culture that enables growth, development and psychological safety
• Exploring and applying Large Language Models (LLMs) and other modern AI techniques (e.g., embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation, summarisation) to enhance internal tools, automate workflows, or develop client-facing features
• Acquiring, cleaning, and integrating data from internal and external sources to enrich analytical capabilities
• Driving product strategy and innovation by identifying where data science and AI can create new capabilities, improve client experience, or enhance the value of Lumina Intelligence insight platforms.
• Collaborating with stakeholders to identify opportunities for automation, efficiency, and product innovation through data
• Staying up-to-date with emerging tools and research in machine learning, AI, and LLMs, bringing new technology into the team's toolkit and championing responsible use across the business
• Driving the evolution of the data team including ways of working, technology, and cross-team collaboration to enhance insight delivery and support Lumina's product and innovation roadmap

Requirements

What you'll need:

• Strong experience leading applied data science projects from concept to deployment, ideally in a product environment
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to share a vision and influence across functions
• Strong people leadership skills with a focus on mentoring, providing actionable feedback, and supporting career growth within the team
• Proven experience with machine learning, LLMs, or other AI-driven systems including deploying, monitoring, and fine-tuning models in production
• Advanced proficiency in Python for data analysis, machine learning, and production-ready pipelines
• Solid experience with SQL for data manipulation
• Deep understanding of data modelling, ETL processes, and relational databases
• Experience with big data technologies and cloud platforms, ideally Azure
• Exposure to embedding models, vector search, and scalable deployment of LLM-powered solutions

Other information

Company Benefits Include:

• 25 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays - increasing by one additional day after 6 years, up to a maximum of 30 days.
• An additional day of leave for you to take on a cultural celebration day or on your birthday if you like. A day for you! At William Reed, we call this our "MeDay".
• A volunteer day to take for supporting a chosen charity and giving back to the community.
• Opportunity for hybrid working
• Contributory Pension
• Life Assurance Scheme
• Group Income Protection
• Enhanced family-friendly leave pay entitlements
• Wellbeing benefits, including: A health care cash plan, Employee assistance programme, Virtual GP service and Access to health & wellbeing resources and tools.
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Electric Car Scheme

Why work for us

We provide a supportive work environment and are committed to maintaining a healthy work/life balance for all of our employees. Working for William Reed means that you will be joining a stable organisation that is committed to developing its employees and brands.

We warmly welcome and encourage applications from talented individuals of all backgrounds and characteristics.

If you need any support in accessing this opportunity, please do not hesitate to discuss this with us.