Senior Data Scientist - Home Insurance

Hastings Direct; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading digital insurance provider in the UK is seeking a Technical Pricing Manager/Senior Data Scientist to oversee advanced statistical models and drive machine learning solutions. This role is pivotal for enhancing technical pricing strategies and requires strong programming skills and a passion for data. Join a team focused on innovation and value creation in the insurance sector. The position offers a competitive salary and benefits, with a flexible hybrid working approach.

Benefits

Private medical insurance

Car allowance of £5k

27 days annual leave + bank holidays

Annual 4Cs performance bonus

Mental health support programs

Qualifications

• Proven track record of delivering commercial value using supervised machine learning techniques.
• Advanced Python programmer, experience with data manipulation and analysis libraries.
• Ability to drive projects from initiation to completion.

Responsibilities

• Develop, analyze, and oversee the implementation of advanced models into live pricing.
• Develop tools to support the management of risk portfolio.
• Engage commercial stakeholders to gather business requirements.

Skills

Supervised machine learning techniques

Python programming

Data manipulation and analysis libraries (NumPy, Pandas)

Data science technologies

SQL

Git

Project management

Machine Learning techniques

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

Job description

Job Title: Technical Pricing Manager / Senior Data Scientist

Location: Bexhill/Leicester/London - with a willingness to travel to Bexhill and Leicester on occasion

Welcome to Hastings Direct

We’re a digital insurance provider with a clear strategy to become the best and biggest player in the UK market. As a company, we’ve made huge investments in our technology, pricing, data and analytics capabilities over the past few years, alongside nurturing our 4Cs culture and significant investment in our people. As an underwriting and pricing team, we’re building a market‑leading pricing technology platform, investing in our team and developing leadership, with a real focus on commercially adding value to the business.

The fact you’re now reading this job advert means we’ve tempted you to find out more about life at HD. If you like what you see, we hope you’ll consider joining our team.

Role overview

We’ve invested beyond Motor Insurance. We have a dedicated Pricing and Underwriting team to deliver the ambitious strategy we have for our Home Insurance product. This effort has the full support of the business, benefits from a state‑of‑the‑art tech stack and inputs from the entire Actuarial and Data Science (AnDS) community at Hastings, making it an extremely exciting time to join the team.

To build upon the foundations and early successes of the recently formed Home team we are looking for an experienced Technical Pricing Manager / Senior Data Scientist with strong programming skills and a passion for data. This candidate will fuel our ongoing development of the technical models that are critical to the next stage of our commercial agenda.

As a Technical Pricing Manager / Senior Data Scientist in the Home Underwriting team, you will be reporting to the Home AnDS lead, working closely with the Data, Analytical and ML Engineering teams. You will play a pivotal role in the development and deployment of machine learning models and data science solutions to extract the crucial predictive insight that underpins all our technical pricing and helps maintain our competitive edge.

You will provide strategic guidance and tooling to benefit the wider Pricing, Data and Analytics community and support data‑driven innovation.

Accountabilities

• Developing, analysing, and overseeing the implementation of advanced statistical and machine learning models into live pricing.
• Developing tools and solutions to support the management of our risk portfolio.
• Stretching the team’s capabilities in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and use of Cloud technologies.
• Working cross‑functionally with the wider Underwriting team to develop the Home data landscape.
• Engineering powerful new features to be deployed into our pricing algorithms.
• Advocating for data science and software development best practices.
• Engaging commercial stakeholders to gather detailed business requirements and coordinating project activities.

Essential skills/experience

• Proven track record of delivering commercial value using supervised machine learning techniques.
• Advanced Python programmer, and experience with data manipulation and analysis libraries (e.g., NumPy, Pandas, scikit‑learn).
• Advanced knowledge of data science technologies including tooling and platforms.
• Proficient in SQL.
• Proficient with Git.
• Ability to drive projects from initiation to completion.
• Keen interest in emerging Machine Learning techniques.
• Desirable: Experience with Cloud deployments (e.g., Azure, AWS, GCP).

Interview Process

• Recruiter screening call
• 1st Round – Intro call with Hiring manager
• 2nd Round – Case study round followed by call with Hiring leader

Benefits

Join us and you’ll find a different way of doing things. We call it the 4Cs. We focus on getting it right for our colleagues, customers, company and community. As one of our colleagues, you’ll be helping to drive our growth, so in return, we’ll give you all the support, training and development you need. Not to mention plenty of recognition and rewards, and the scope to voice your ideas and put them into practice.

Flexible working

We champion a flexible hybrid working approach – please speak to your recruiter to discuss in more detail.

Competitive bonus scheme

All colleagues are eligible for our annual 4Cs performance bonus.

Physical wellbeing

As a Band 4 colleague, Hastings pays for you to receive private medical insurance (also known as PMI), giving you flexibility and convenience to see a specialist or consultant and allowing you to decide when and where you will be seen.

Financial wellbeing

In addition to a competitive salary and £5 k car allowance, we provide 4× your salary life assurance cover, income protection at no extra cost, matched pension contributions up to 10%, and an award‑winning package that includes discounts, cashback, free independent mortgage advice and free access to financial wellbeing support.

Mental wellbeing programme

We have the Thrive mental health app, a colleague assistance programme available 24/7, in‑house mental health first aiders, support groups and a dedicated team to make sure we are covering your needs.

Extra perks

27 days annual leave + bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell one of your weeks, access to our health care cashback plans, dental plans, discounted health assessments, cycle‑to‑work and tech schemes, discounted and free onsite facilities, social events throughout the year and much more.

Hastings Group is an equal opportunities employer which means we treat people fairly. We welcome applications from all suitably skilled persons regardless of their gender, age, race, disability, ethnic background, religion/belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or marital/family status. Please also note that we have a thorough referencing process, which includes credit and criminal record checks.

We are a Disability Confident employer and are committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are fully inclusive. We welcome applications through the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). For more information on the DCS, please visit our inclusive business page on our careers website.