Data Scientist Manager

Kainos; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Kainos is seeking a Data Scientist Manager in the UK to lead delivery of advanced AI solutions and shape architectural direction. You will guide multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring ethical and scalable AI deployments while collaborating with senior stakeholders. The role emphasizes people development and industry-leading AI practices.

You will foster innovation, coach junior members, and drive customer-focused outcomes across government, healthcare, and commercial sectors.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2.1 degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Statistics or similar quantitative field.
• Proven experience leading multi-disciplinary teams to deliver AI/ML solutions.
• Demonstrable experience in technical leadership for AI delivery including architecture and product design principles.
• Deep understanding of AI/ML models (time series, supervised/unsupervised, RL, LLMs).
• Experience with modern AI engineering approaches (prompt engineering, RAG, agentic AI).
• Strong Python skills with software engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, code reviews).
• Expertise in data engineering for AI: large-scale, unstructured, multimodal data.
• Understanding of responsible AI, model interpretability, ethics.

Responsibilities

• Deliver advanced AI solutions leveraging state-of-the-art ML and AI technologies.
• Drive adoption of modern AI development and scalable cloud-native architectures.
• Provide technical leadership, engage with senior stakeholders on architecture and strategic direction.
• Manage, coach and develop a team, set standards and policies, maintain client relationships.

Skills

Team leadership

AI/ML delivery

Architectural leadership

Python programming

Data engineering

Responsible AI

Stakeholder management

Mentoring & coaching

Time series / ML methods

2.1 degree in CS/AI

Education

2.1 degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

XGBoost / scikit-learn

Vector databases

Knowledge graphs

Job description

Join Kainos and Shape the Future

At Kainos, we’re problem solvers, innovators, and collaborators - driven by a shared mission to create real impact. Whether we’re transforming digital services for millions, delivering cutting-edge Workday solutions, or pushing the boundaries of technology, we do it together.

We believe in a people-first culture, where your ideas are valued, your growth is supported, and your contributions truly make a difference. Here, you’ll be part of a diverse, ambitious team that celebrates creativity and collaboration.

Job Profile Description

Kainos is recognised as one of the UK’s leading AI and data businesses, with a decade-long track record of delivering impactful, production-grade AI solutions for clients across government, healthcare, defence and commercial sectors. Kainos is at the forefront of AI innovation, trusted by Microsoft, AWS, and others to deliver advanced AI and data solutions at citizen scale.

Our 150-strong AI and Data Practice brings together deep expertise in machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI and data. We are pioneers in responsible AI, having authored the UK government’s AI Cyber Security Code of Practice implementation guide and we partner with leading organisations to ensure AI is deployed ethically, securely and with measurable business value. Our teams are at the cutting edge of AI research, and delivery, it is truly an exciting team to join Kainos as we further grow our AI capability.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE BUSINESS

As a Data Scientist Manager at Kainos, you’ll be responsible for successful delivery of advanced AI solutions leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning, generative and agentic AI technologies. You will drive the adoption of modern AI development and scalable cloud-native architectures. Your role will involve technical leadership, engaging with senior stakeholders to agree architectural principles, strategic direction and system architecture. As a technical leader within Kainos and wider industry, you will foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.

You will manage, coach and develop a team, with a focus on development of standards and policies, enduring customer relationships and embedding commercial acumen. You will also provide direction and leadership for your team as you solve challenging problems together.

Minimum (essential) Requirements

• A minimum of a 2.1 degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Statistics or in a similar quantitative field.
• Proven experience of leading multi-disciplinary teams to deliver high quality AI/ML solutions.
• Demonstrable experience of technical leadership for AI delivery including architecture, product design principles and engineering excellence.
• Have a deep understanding and developing of AI/ML models, including time series, supervised/unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning and LLMs.
• Experience with the latest AI engineering approaches such as prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and agentic AI.
• Strong Python skills with a grounding in software engineering best practices (CI/CD, testing, code reviews etc).
• Expertise in data engineering for AI: handling large-scale, unstructured, and multimodal data.
• Understanding of responsible AI principles, model interpretability and ethical considerations.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to lead client projects, manage C-level stakeholders and establish requirements/architecture concepts.
• We are passionate about developing people, you will bring experience in managing, coaching and developing junior members of a team and wider community.

Desirable

• Demonstrable experience with modern deep learning frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow), fine-tuning or distillation of LLMs (e.g. GPT, Llama, Claude, Gemini), machine learning libraries (e.g. scikit-learn, XGBoost).
• Experience with data storage for AI, vector databases, semantic search and knowledge graphs.
• Actively contributes to open-source AI projects, research publications and industry events/websites.
• Familiarity with AI security, privacy, and compliance standards e.g. ISO42001.

Embracing our differences

At Kainos, we believe in the power of diversity, equity and inclusion. We are committed to building a team that is as diverse as the world we live in, where everyone is valued, respected, and given an equal chance to thrive. We actively seek out talented people from all backgrounds, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other characteristic that makes them who they are. We also believe every candidate deserves a level playing field.

Our friendly talent acquisition team is here to support you every step of the way, so if you require any accommodations or adjustments, we encourage you to reach out.

We understand that everyone's journey is different, and by having a private conversation we can ensure that our recruitment process is tailored to your needs.