Head of Data Science

Carmoola; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Carmoola, the London fintech, is hiring a Head of Data Science to own its data science strategy and risk models. You’ll deploy AI across the lending flow, using Open Banking for affordability, with strong autonomy from day one and direct impact on decisions.

You will ship production-grade models, collaborate with Product, Engineering, Credit and Ops, and report results to leadership. This is a high-visibility, scalable fintech role.

Qualifications

• Credit risk assessment experience in UK consumer lending, ideally motor finance or POS fintech.
• Hands-on data science: built risk models and put them into production; proficient in Python and SQL.
• Product and delivery mindset; can align with Product, Engineering, Credit, Ops, and Collections.
• Agentic AI know-how: building with LLMs and AI agents in real decisions, with governance.
• Production engineering discipline: Git, testing, CI/CD, cloud, model monitoring, live releases.
• Clear communication of risk controls to engineers and the board.

Responsibilities

• Own risk prediction strategy across data science methods and data sources.
• Lead data science roadmap with Product and Engineering; ensure models fit business.
• Develop models: gradient boosting, Open Banking categorisation, etc.
• Ship to production with end-to-end deployment and governance.
• Turn data into decisions; deliver analytics and MI to leadership.

Skills

Credit risk modelling

Python

SQL

Product delivery mindset

Agentic AI know-how

Production engineering

Commercial mindset

Mission alignment

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Cloud platforms

Job description

Join the Revolution in Car Finance

At Carmoola, we’re changing the way people get on the road – making it faster, fairer, and entirely built around the customer. We’ve started with car finance, reimagining it from the ground up with a seamless, digital experience that puts drivers in control.

Since launch, we’ve raised over £540m from top-tier investors (including QED), helped over 31,000 customers get behind the wheel – and we’re scaling fast.

To take things to the next level, we're looking for a technical, AI-native Head of Data Science to build and deploy the models that let us lend faster, safely, at scale.

Your Mission

You’ll take the reins on building and owning Carmoola's data science strategy – from designing and deploying the AI to assess risk across our application flow, to using Open Banking to provide frictionless, accurate affordability assessments. You’ll have a huge amount of autonomy and responsibility from day one, and the opportunity to define what AI-native risk and affordability at Carmoola really means.

This is a high-impact role for someone who is as comfortable writing and shipping production code as presenting to leadership, thinks commercially about the cost of friction, and knows how to build something from scratch. You won't hand requirements to another team – you'll set the strategy, build the models and agents yourself, deploy them into live decisioning and prove their impact on real losses.

What You'll Be Doing

Own our risk prediction strategy - Set the direction across data science methods, data sources and platforms. Decide what we build versus buy, and balance loss prevention against friction for customers and dealers.

Lead delivery across the business - Own the data science roadmap. Shape requirements with Product and Engineering, work with Credit, Ops and Collections to make models fit how the business really runs, and keep delivery moving from idea to live impact.

Develop the models underneath - Build Gradient Boosting Machines to predict risk, Open Banking categorisation models, plus look for other uses of data science techniques to meet our goals.

Ship it to production - Own deployment end to end, from tested, version-controlled code and CI/CD to safe releases and live monitoring for drift and performance, with clear governance and human oversight wherever customers are affected.

Turn data into decisions - Deliver analytics and MI that show how your models are winning, and report against risk appetite to senior leadership and the board.

What You’ll Bring

• Credit risk modelling experience in UK lending - Significant experience in credit risk assessment within UK consumer lending, ideally motor finance, point-of-sale or a fast-growth fintech.
• Hands-on data science - You've personally built risk models and put them into production, not just specified them. You're expert in Python and SQL, with a strong grounding in machine learning.
• Product and delivery mindset - You think like a product manager as much as a data scientist. You define the problem, prioritise ruthlessly, bring Product, Engineering, Credit, Ops and Collections along with you, and deliver outcomes, not just models.
• Agentic AI know-how - Practical experience building with LLMs and AI agents on real decisions, not just demos, including evaluation, guardrails and governance.
• Production engineering discipline - You're at home with Git, testing, CI/CD, cloud platforms and model monitoring, and you ship code you'd trust with live lending decisions.
• Commercial and clear-headed - You know friction has a cost, you design controls proportionate to the risk, and you can explain it equally well to engineers and the board.
• Genuine excitement for Carmoola's mission and the chance to shape the future of how people get on the road.

Why Join Carmoola?

• Competitive salary range of £120-140k
• Options/equity package
• Yearly performance-based pay reviews
• Hybrid working: 3 days a week in our London office, in the heart of beautiful Primrose Hill
• Holidays: 30 days + bank holidays, plus an extra day on your birthday
• 15 days a year to work from anywhere
• Private healthcare
• Pension: 5% employer matched contribution
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Join a mega-talented and high performing team
• The chance to play a pivotal role inside a fast-growing fintech during a meaningful stage of its journey.