Lead Data & AI Scientist - ML Models Economic Crime Intelligence

Lloyds Banking Group; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 79,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading banking group in Leeds is seeking a Lead Data & AI Scientist to leverage advanced AI methods to combat economic crime. The ideal candidate will lead a team in developing innovative solutions that enhance fraud detection and prevention efforts. A degree in Computer Science or a related field, along with strong skills in machine learning and data engineering, is required. This role offers a hybrid working model and a comprehensive benefits package.

Benefits

Generous pension contribution

Annual performance-related bonus

Share schemes

30 days’ holiday

Wellbeing initiatives

Qualifications

• Experience building, deploying and maintaining NLP/Deep Learning Systems.
• Strong leadership skills using empathy and clarity.
• Experience with big data processing.

Responsibilities

• Build machine learned models to detect and prevent fraud.
• Lead teams in the development of AI products.
• Engage with data engineering teams to utilize ECP data.

Skills

Leadership

Natural Language Processing

Machine Learning

Python

Data Engineering

Communication

Education

Degree in Computer Science or similar field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

NumPy

Scikit-Learn

Pandas

Job description

End Date Thursday 08 January 2026

Salary Range £70,929 - £78,810

Flexible Working Options Hybrid Working, Job Share

Job Description Summary .

Job Description

JOB TITLE Lead Data & AI Scientist
SALARY £70,929 - £78,810 per annum
LOCATION Leeds
HOURS Full-time
WORKING PATTERN Our work style is hybrid, which involves spending at least two days per week, or 40% of our time, at one of our office sites.

Join our team if you have an appetite for innovation that leads to incredible impact! In the Economic Crime Prevention (ECP) Platform Team, our mission is to reduce harm to our communities by enhancing Lloyds Banking Group's capability to prevent, detect and respond to economic crime. The Platform sits within Consumer Relationships and plays a critical role in providing services across the whole Group.

About this opportunity

We’re looking to recruit a Lead Data & AI Scientist to lead on the delivery of sophisticated methods to a wide range of Economic Crime Prevention (ECP) use cases including natural language processing, generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and graph-based Machine Learning (ML).

We are seeking a candidate with a genuine passion for AI and protecting customers that can apply the latest advances in the field to help identify and prevent acts of fraud and financial crime across tens of millions of transactions per day.

Day to day, you will

• Use your skill set to build machine learned models to detect and prevent fraud and financial crime.
• Lead small teams in the development and maintenance of AI products that serve internal and external customers.
• Work with diverse datasets and efficiently process and learn from them in order to gain insights.
• Engage with data engineering teams within the Economic Crime Intelligence lab to help guide how we can best make use of our ECP data.
• Work closely with stakeholders to understand business problems and help guide where data AI solutions could prove fruitful.

Why Lloyds Banking Group

Like the modern Britain we serve, we’re evolving. Investing billions in our people, data and tech to transform the way we meet the ever-changing needs of our 26 million customers. We’re growing with purpose. Join us on our journey and you will too.

What you’ll need

• Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics or similar field.
• Experience building, deploying and maintaining NLP/Deep Learning Systems.
• Extensive experience in at least one Deep Learning framework (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX).
• Well versed in the scientific Python ecosystem (NumPy, Scikit-Learn, Pandas etc.).
• Strong Data Engineering underpinnings and an ability to work with big data (Tb).
• Strong leadership skills, using empathy, clarity and challenge to support your team to be their best.
• Strong communication skills with an ability to adapt style for different audiences.

And any experience of these would be really useful

• Experience with Huggingface or PyTorch Geometric libraries.
• Understanding of MLOps and how it applies to the entire model lifecycle.
• Experience deploying models behind APIs.
• Experience with cloud platforms especially GCP and Vertex.

About working for us

Our focus is to ensure we're inclusive every day, building an organisation that reflects modern society and celebrates diversity in all its forms. We want our people to feel that they belong and can be their best, regardless of background, identity or culture. We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer initiative. And it’s why we especially welcome applications from under-represented groups. We’re disability confident. So if you’d like reasonable adjustments to be made to our recruitment processes, just let us know.

We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%
• An annual performance-related bonus
• Share schemes including free shares
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• 30 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

Ready for a career where you can have a positive impact as you learn, grow and thrive? Apply today and find out more.

At Lloyds Banking Group, we're driven by a clear purpose; to help Britain prosper. Across the Group, our colleagues are focused on making a difference to customers, businesses and communities. With us you'll have a key role to play in shaping the financial services of the future, whilst the scale and reach of our Group means you'll have many opportunities to learn, grow and develop.

We keep your data safe. So, we'll only ever ask you to provide confidential or sensitive information once you have formally been invited along to an interview or accepted a verbal offer to join us which is when we run our background checks. We'll always explain what we need and why, with any request coming from a trusted Lloyds Banking Group person.

We're focused on creating a values-led culture and are committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the customers and communities we serve. Together we’re building a truly inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference.