Senior Data Scientist - Public Sector

Kainos; Budock Water; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Kainos is a leading UK AI and data business delivering production-grade AI solutions across government, healthcare, defence and commercial sectors. As a Senior Data Scientist, you will build advanced AI systems, drive modern AI frameworks, and mentor colleagues in a fast-paced environment.

You will work on responsible AI practices, scalable cloud-native architectures, and collaboration with customers to translate business challenges into trustworthy AI solutions.

Qualifications

• A minimum of a 2.1 degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Statistics or similar.
• Deep understanding and development experience of AI/ML models, including time-series, supervised/unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning and LLMs.
• Experience with prompt engineering, RAG and agentic AI.
• Strong Python skills with CS/DevOps practices (CI/CD, testing, code reviews).
• Expertise in data engineering for AI: large-scale, unstructured and multimodal data.

Responsibilities

• Build advanced AI solutions leveraging state-of-the-art ML and generative/agentic AI.
• Drive adoption of modern AI frameworks, AIOps practices and scalable cloud-native architectures.
• Deliver hands-on technical work and translate business challenges into trustworthy AI solutions.
• Mentor colleagues, fostering innovation and engineering excellence.

Skills

Python

CI/CD

Time-series ML

Reinforcement learning

LLMs

Data engineering

Model interpretability

Team collaboration

Education

2.1 degree in Computer Science/AI/Data Science

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

scikit-learn

XGBoost

Job description

Job Profile Description

Kainos is recognised as one of the UK’s leading AI and data businesses, with a decade-long track record of delivering impactful, production‑grade AI solutions for clients across government, healthcare, defence, and commercial sectors. Kainos is at the forefront of AI innovation, trusted by Microsoft, AWS, and others to deliver advanced AI and data solutions at citizen scale.

Our 150‑strong AI and Data Practice brings together deep expertise in machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI and data. We are pioneers in responsible AI, having authored the UK government’s AI Cyber Security Code of Practice implementation guide and partnering with leading organisations to ensure AI is deployed ethically, securely and with measurable business value.

Main Purpose of the Role & Responsibilities

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will build advanced AI solutions leveraging state‑of‑the‑art machine learning, generative and agentic AI technologies. You will drive the adoption of modern AI frameworks, AIOps best practices and scalable cloud‑native architectures. Your role involves hands‑on technical delivery, collaborating with customers to translate business challenges into trustworthy AI solutions and ensuring responsible AI practices throughout. As a technical mentor, you will foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.

It is a fast‑paced environment, so it is important for you to make sound, reasoned decisions. You will do this whilst learning about new technologies and approaches, with talented colleagues that will help you to develop and grow. You will support your colleagues and more junior developers, providing direction and support as you solve challenging problems together.

Minimum (essential) Requirements

• A minimum of a 2.1 degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Statistics or a similar quantitative field.
• Deep understanding and development experience of AI/ML models, including time‑series, supervised/unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning and LLMs.
• Experience with the latest AI engineering approaches such as prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) and agentic AI.
• Strong Python skills with a grounding in software engineering best practices (CI/CD, testing, code reviews, etc.).
• Expertise in data engineering for AI: handling large‑scale, unstructured and multimodal data.
• Understanding of responsible AI principles, model interpretability and ethical considerations.
• Strong interpersonal skills and team working.

Desirable

• Demonstrable experience with modern deep learning frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow), fine‑tuning or distillation of LLMs (e.g. GPT, Llama, Claude, Gemini), machine learning libraries (e.g. scikit‑learn, XGBoost).
• Experience with data storage for AI, vector databases, semantic search and knowledge graphs.
• Active contribution to open‑source AI projects, research publications and industry events/websites.
• Familiarity with AI security, privacy and compliance standards such as ISO42001.

Embracing our differences

At Kainos, we believe in the power of diversity, equity and inclusion. We are committed to building a team that is as diverse as the world we live in, where everyone is valued, respected and given an equal chance to thrive. We actively seek out talented people from all backgrounds, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability or any other characteristic that makes them who they are. We also believe every candidate deserves a level playing field.

Our friendly talent acquisition team is here to support you every step of the way. If you require any accommodations or adjustments, we encourage you to reach out. We understand that everyone's journey is different, and by having a private conversation we can ensure that our recruitment process is tailored to your needs.