Principal Data Scientist

Digital Futures; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension contributions

Wellbeing budget

Hybrid working with office days

Job summary

Digital Futures is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead high‑value analytics and modelling work, turning complex data into insights and AI models that drive client outcomes.

The role blends hands‑on modelling with technical leadership, shaping problem framing, experimentation, and collaboration with product and engineering to deliver production‑ready solutions with measurable impact.

Qualifications

• Experience leading end-to-end data science projects and teams.
• Strong statistics, experimentation and evaluation foundations.
• Ability to translate business questions into analytical projects and production-ready models.
• Mentor junior data scientists and foster collaboration across disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of advanced analytics and ML solutions.
• Frame problems, select modelling approaches and guide experiments.
• Collaborate with product, transformation and engineering to production-ready models.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring across projects.
• Communicate findings clearly to senior stakeholders and translate results into business value.
• Contribute to reusable assets, accelerators and best practices in data science.

Skills

End-to-end data science

Statistics & ML

Python & SQL

Production deployment

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Python

SQL

Pandas/Numpy

Scikit-learn

Job description

Digital Futures is seeking a Principal Data Scientist to lead high‑value analytical and modelling work, turning complex data into insights and AI models that drive client outcomes. The role combines hands‑on modelling with technical leadership and thought leadership.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of advanced analytics and machine learning solutions for complex client problems.
• Frame problems, select appropriate modelling approaches and guide experimentation from hypothesis through to validated solution.
• Collaborate with product, transformation and engineering leads to translate business questions into analytical projects and production‑ready models.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to data scientists and analysts across projects.
• Communicate findings, insights and model implications clearly to senior stakeholders.
• Contribute to the development of reusable assets, accelerators and best practices in data science.

Skills & experience

• Extensive experience as a data scientist working on end‑to‑end projects, from discovery to deployment.
• Strong statistical, analytical and machine learning skills, with solid foundations in experimentation and evaluation.
• Proficiency in relevant tools and languages (e.g. Python, SQL, common data science libraries) and working with large and diverse datasets.
• Experience collaborating with engineers to transition models into production environments.
• Ability to scope and lead multiple concurrent initiatives, managing priorities and expectations.
• Strong storytelling skills, able to translate technical results into clear business narratives.

Behaviours & mindset

• Acts as a scientist‑practitioner, balancing rigour with pragmatism.
• Curious and experimental, comfortable exploring uncertainty and iterating quickly.
• Supportive mentor, invested in developing the skills of more junior team members.
• Collaborative and open to challenge from peers in engineering, product and business.
• Outcome‑oriented, focused on impact rather than just model sophistication.

What's in it for you?

• Tailored professional development plan and upskilling
• Ability to make an impact at Digital Futures while it is in a period of accelerated growth
• Access to our employee benefits, discounts and perks platformPension contributions
• Wellbeing budget
• Competitive salary
• Hybrid working model with required office working days

Digital Futures is a mission‑led technology services company specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI). We have reimagined how capability is built in the age of AI, disrupting outdated workforce and education models, placing ambition at our core. We're building the workforce of the future, leveraging the power of AI to drive innovation and inclusive growth. We are creating a company that matters: one where pride is a strategic asset and our collective impact is measured in enduring outcomes – opportunity created, futures transformed, advantage secured.