Senior Simulation Engineer (Data Science)

Here at Gousto, we are on a mission to become the UK's most loved way to eat dinner, and for every meal to leave the planet better off. Gousto is changing how people shop, cook and eat food at home. It’s an incredibly exciting time to join our team - and we’re a friendly bunch! We’re proud to be one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK. Powered by data and a love of food, we’re a recipe box company that’s disrupting the sector, and we’re passionate about our diverse team and our customers. All of our people are responsible for the success of Gousto, and we’re passionate about creating an inclusive environment for all to thrive. Our guiding values - Dream, Deliver and Care - show our commitment to innovation, our ambition to hit goals at speed, and our deep respect for the people we work with.

Location: London, Hybrid

We’re excited to be searching for a Senior Simulation Engineer (Internal title: Senior Data Scientist) to join Gousto and help shape the next phase of how we use data and simulation to drive smarter decisions across the business. At Gousto, data science is embedded across our teams, and this role offers the opportunity to work on complex, high-impact problems that directly influence efficiency, cost, and customer outcomes.

In this role, you’ll design and build simulation models and frameworks that enhance existing data science products and support continuous improvement across our operations. You’ll focus on building robust data pipelines, improving simulation capabilities over time, and enabling initiatives that deliver meaningful business value, without being tied to narrow, one-off analyses.

You’ll be part of a collaborative, cross-functional team, working closely with product managers, analysts and software engineers, and partnering with Data leadership to define OKRs, shape technical roadmaps and measure success against company goals. This is a fantastic opportunity for a senior data scientist who enjoys ownership, influence, and seeing their work make a real difference.

Core Responsibilities

• Design and build our end-to-end simulation capability, iterating over time to support new propositions and improve key business metrics.
• Drive the continuous evolution of our experimental framework, developing tooling that strengthens and scales our simulation capability.
• Stay close to the latest research and tooling in simulation, identifying practical opportunities to apply new ideas to real data science products.
• Partner with a Senior Principal Data Scientist to identify broader opportunities for simulation technology, support data science product roadmaps, and help validate value and feasibility through discovery.
• Work closely with software engineers to design and evolve the architecture for deploying simulation products, balancing performance, scalability and cost.
• Identify and implement opportunities to reduce business-as-usual overhead for data science products, benefiting both the data team and wider stakeholders.
• Own relationships with squad stakeholders, acting as the go-to expert for simulation-related questions and guidance.
• Contribute to the wider data science community, sharing knowledge, promoting best practices, and helping build the data science brand internally and externally.
• Play an active role in shaping the culture of the data science function and Gousto as a whole, contributing to initiatives beyond core OKR work such as inclusion, knowledge sharing and outreach.

Who You Are

• Strong knowledge of simulation technology, with experience applying it to real-world, production problems.
• Confident working within the AWS ecosystem, including ECS tasks and Lambda functions, and comfortable with Docker, CloudFormation and CI/CD tooling such as CircleCI.
• Highly proficient in Python, with strong experience using Java, SQL and PySpark in data-intensive environments.
• Experienced in writing production-ready code and independently deploying and supporting data science products in live environments.
• Comfortable working in cross-functional teams, partnering with analysts, software engineers and product managers to deliver end-to-end solutions.
• Experienced in shaping and prioritising squad roadmaps, balancing technical excellence with business impact.
• Able to manage multiple projects in parallel, adapting priorities as needs evolve.
• Passionate about developing others, with experience mentoring junior data scientists.
• Brings experience from operational domains such as supply chain, logistics or fulfilment.
• Knowledge of optimisation techniques is a strong advantage, particularly where combined with simulation approaches.

Benefits

Gousto is for everyone. Whether it’s creating diversity in our recipes or building new teams, we care about our people and the opportunities they have at Gousto. Across our business we lead with inclusivity and strive for equality in all we do; working hard to ensure Gousto is an environment where you can be totally yourself. Everyone is welcome and we’re looking for applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences. Excited but wondering if you tick every box? We recommend applying anyway so that we can review your profile. And, if you’re in a job share, why not just apply as a pair.

For our roles outside of Operations, most of our people spend 1 or 2 days in our offices every week, combining the benefits of flexibility and time together with colleagues. We want to enable you to do your best work, and if you require additional flexibility, please talk to us about it. If you have a disability that you’re worried will affect you during the interview process, please let us know and we will do our best to help you feel comfortable. We’d love it if you could submit your application online. If you require an alternative method of applying, please let us know.