Research Scientist jobs in United Kingdom

About Zego

At Zego, we understand that traditional motor insurance holds good drivers back. It's too complicated, too expensive, and it doesn't reflect how well you actually drive. Since 2016, we have been on a mission to change that by offering the lowest priced insurance for good drivers.

From van drivers and gig workers to everyday car drivers, our customers are the driving force behind everything we do. We've sold tens of millions of policies and raised over $200 million in funding. And we're only just getting started.

About the team

We don't build pricing models, we build the driving intelligence that feeds them. Our mission is to drive safer roads and fairer insurance through data.

The Telematics team transforms raw phone sensor data into meaningful insights about how people drive. Using advanced signal processing and machine learning, we process high-frequency data to extract behavioural signals that power our understanding of driving quality, context, and risk.

About the Role

As a Senior Data Scientist, you'll help define the future of behaviour-based insurance. You'll own the development of features and algorithms that detect driving patterns from sensors, test new hypotheses, and bring the most impactful insights into production.

You'll work at the intersection of data science and engineering, generating scalable, real-world insights from GPS, accelerometer, and other data

What you will be doing

• Design and build robust behavioural features and factors from telematics data.

• Develop end-to-end pipelines in Python and SQL, from quick heuristics to full ML models.

• Prioritise simple, robust solutions that scale, whether rule-based or ML-driven.

• Collaborate with Software Engineers and Product Managers to deploy features and validate impact.

• Lead experiments, explore new ideas, and automate insight generation.

• Translate complex sensor data into clear findings for internal use and product development.

About You

• MSc or equivalent industry experience in a relevant field (e.g. Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Statistics). Candidates with a BSc and strong production experience will also be considered.

• Experience delivering data science or data engineering solutions into production. You're comfortable writing production-grade code, not just notebooks.

• Strong Python and SQL skills, including the basic libraries (Pandas, Numpy, ScikitLearn). You value writing clean, maintainable, and tested code.

• Proven ability to design, build, and maintain data pipelines and tools from scratch that are reliable, maintainable, and scalable.

• Strong communicator: able to translate ambiguous problems into structured, testable ideas and share insights across technical and non-technical teams.

• A growth mindset: you're curious, open to feedback, and driven to keep learning and improving.

Nice to Have

• Experience working with noisy, high-frequency, or sensor/time-series data (e.g. GPS, accelerometer), and making sense of it.
• Experience with digital signal processing or sensor physics.

• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g. AWS) and tooling like Docker, Kubernetes, or orchestration frameworks.

• Background in insurance, mobile data, or behaviour modelling.

What's it like to work at Zego?

Joining Zego is a career-defining move. People go further here, reaching their full potential to achieve extraordinary things.

We're spread throughout the UK and Europe, and united by our drive to get things done. We're proud of our company and our culture - a friendly and inclusive space where we can lift each other up and celebrate our wins every day.

Together, we're setting the bar higher, delivering exceptional work that makes a difference.

Our people are the most important part of our story, and everyone here plays a role. There's loads of room to learn and grow, and you'll get the freedom to steer your career wherever you want.

You'll work alongside a talented group who embrace each other's differences and aren't afraid of a challenge. We recognise our achievements, learn from our mistakes, and help each other to be the best we can be. Together, we're making insurance matter

How we work

We believe that teams work better when they have time to collaborate and space to get things done. We call it Zego Hybrid. While some of our team choose to come into our central London office once a week, we're flexible - some people prefer being in once a month or even quarterly. It's all about finding the right balance between collaborative face time and focused home-working, so we can achieve great results while maintaining a healthy work-life balance

Our approach to AI

We believe in the power of AI to meaningfully improve how we work - helping us move faster, think differently, and focus on what matters most. At Zego, we encourage people to stay curious and intentional about how AI is leveraged in their work and teams to drive practical impact every day. This is your chance to do the most meaningful work of your career - and we'll provide you with the tools, support, and freedom to do it well

Benefits

We reward our people well. Join us and you'll get a market-competitive salary, private medical insurance, company share options, generous holiday allowance, and a whole lot of wellbeing benefits. We also offer an annual flexible hybrid working contribution, which you can use to support with your travel to the office or towards your own personal development. And that's just for starters!

There's more to Zego than just a job - Check out our blog for insights, stories, and more.

We're an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status.