Head of Data Science

iwoca; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

A flexible finance provider in the UK is seeking a Head of Data Science to lead teams shaping lending and product operations. You'll manage data science strategy, ensure high-quality models in production, and collaborate with engineering, product, and business teams. The ideal candidate will have robust experience in strategic leadership and data science, with a passion for building effective teams. The role offers competitive pay ranging from £120,000 to £170,000, alongside various perks and a supportive work culture.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Medical insurance

Private GP service

25 days’ holiday plus additional options

Paid sabbatical after four years

Counselling and therapy access

Pension contributions

Employee equity incentive scheme

Parental leave benefits

Electric car and cycle-to-work schemes

Company retreats

Qualifications

• Experience setting data science strategy and aligning work with commercial goals.
• Managed the full lifecycle of models in production.
• Understand how modelling supports business decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead multiple data science teams for strategic direction.
• Oversee hiring and development of data scientists.
• Coordinate projects with Engineering, Product, and Operations.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Production experience

Commercial acumen

Team development

Technical background

Education

Background in probability, statistics, mathematics, or physics

Job description

Overview

You’ll lead multiple data science teams whose work guides decision-making across lending, product, operations, and strategy. You’ll shape how we work, ensuring that analytical insight directly influences the choices that matter most at iwoca. As the Head of Data Science, you’ll lead a group that focuses on rigorous, interpretable, and commercially useful modelling that is deployed, monitored, and maintained in production. You’ll set direction, shape team structure, and ensure the function’s work is grounded in commercial context and used by decision‑makers across iwoca. The group has approximately 25 data scientists, with most working in a central team and some smaller groups aligned to specific products or domains. You’ll report to one of iwoca’s co‑founders, who is also a data scientist.

Responsibilities

• Strategic direction: Work with team leads and senior data scientists to coordinate day‑to‑day work, plan, sequence, and review projects, maintain consistent standards of reasoning, communication, and methodology, and decide where and how to apply efforts.
• Technical and people leadership: Oversee hiring and development to ensure fair, structured, and growing multi‑team capability, shape how data science is applied at scale, communicate uncertainty, allocate analytical support, and direct effort to highest‑value work.
• Collaboration with engineering and business teams: Coordinate with Engineering, Product, and Operations teams so projects are properly scoped, resourced, and aligned with wider priorities, and represent the function in discussions shaping lending, risk, and product decisions.

Qualifications

• Strategic leadership: Experience setting data science strategy and aligning work with commercial goals, translating technical modelling for senior stakeholders, making assumptions explicit, and shaping subsequent decisions.
• Production experience: Managed the full lifecycle of models in production—deploying, monitoring, and retiring them, and coordinating chains of model dependencies across teams.
• Commercial acumen: Understand how modelling supports business decisions and know when to make trade‑offs between depth, delivery time, and value.
• Team development: Track record of hiring and developing data scientists and establishing consistent standards for planning, peer review, and methodology.
• Technical background: Background in probability, statistics, or a related quantitative field such as mathematics or physics, and ability to evaluate analytical work for conceptual soundness.
• Bonus:
  • Experience shaping an R&D or modelling agenda, including probabilistic or long‑term forecasting work.
  • Experience in domains such as credit risk, lending, or customer lifetime value.
  • Experience representing a data science function externally (e.g., industry events or publications).

About the Company

Small businesses move fast. Opportunities often don’t wait, and cash‑flow pressures can appear overnight. To keep going, and growing, SMEs need finance that’s as flexible and responsive as they are. We built iwoca to provide that finance. Our smart technology, data science and five‑star customer service ensures business owners can act with the speed, confidence and control they need, exactly when it’s needed. We’ve already cleared the way for 100,000 businesses with more than £4 billion in funding, and our mission is to support one million SMEs in their defining moments.

The team at iwoca builds probabilistic and statistical models that make lending decisions in real time, support forecasting and shape commercial strategy. Their work is deployed in production code and makes real‑time lending decisions; it’s more than exploratory analysis. Successfully leading these teams requires close collaboration with engineering, product, and commercial teams.

Salary

We expect to pay from £120,000 to £170,000 for this role. We’re open‑minded, so include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates and run quarterly performance and salary reviews.

Work Culture and Offices

We prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. We value thought and skill diversity, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us innovate and improve our products and services.

Offices: London, Leeds, Berlin, and Frankfurt, with plenty of drinks and snacks.

Benefits

• Flexible working hours.
• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
• A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents.
• 25 days’ holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional five days of annual leave, and unlimited unpaid leave.
• A one‑month, fully paid sabbatical after four years.
• Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions for team members that need emotional or mental health support.
• 3 % pension contributions on total earnings.
• An employee equity incentive scheme.
• Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
• Electric car scheme and cycle‑to‑work scheme.
• Two company retreats a year: we’ve been to France, Italy, Spain, and further afield.

Learning & Development

• A learning and development budget for everyone.
• Company‑wide talks with internal and external speakers.
• Access to learning platforms like Treehouse.

Useful Links

• iwoca benefits & policies
• Interview welcome pack