Data Science Manager

hackajob is collaborating with Sainsbury's DTD to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role. At Sainsbury’s, data sits at the heart of how we operate, innovate and serve our customers. Our Data & Analytics team is building a technically advanced, commercially focused and impactful capability, powering our Next Level Strategy and helping to create a Sainsbury’s powered by industry leading AI algorithms. We use data, technology and advanced analytics to drive better decisions across the business, from forecasting and optimisation to experimentation, personalisation and machine learning. With one of the richest retail datasets in the UK and a portfolio spanning Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat and Nectar, the opportunity to innovate is huge. Here, you’ll tackle complex challenges at scale, create measurable impact and grow quickly alongside brilliant colleagues. People who thrive with us combine business understanding, technical expertise and curiosity, with a natural instinct for problem‑solving. Join us and help shape the future of retail through data and AI.

What You’ll Do

• As a Data Science Manager and a lead of one of our central Data Science teams, you will play a pivotal role in developing in‑house data science solutions that automate decision‑making and provide valuable insights across our business.
• You will lead complex data science development projects, as well as help set the direction for large‑scale ML transformation programmes.
• You will line‑manage and support several data scientists to elevate a high‑performing team.

Why join us

• Wide impact. Deploying models here means improving the experience of millions of customers each day.
• Range of projects. Our projects vary from supply chain optimisation for one of the largest logistics networks in the country, predicting which substitution products online shoppers prefer, to helping our instore colleagues keep shelves full.
• Focus on data science work. Access to extensive, clean, and well‑documented data in our industry‑leading platform: spend your time building data science solutions, not cleaning datasets.
• Time for growth. 10% of time set aside for learning & personal development.
• Learning and mentoring. With a team of 50 data scientists, engineers and product managers, there are lots of opportunities to learn from colleagues through knowledge shares, pair programming, and communities of practice.
• Flexible working. Our team prioritises hybrid working, both at home and in our central London Farringdon office.
• Save on groceries. 10% discount on products across Sainsbury's (up to 15% for two days each week).

Key Responsibilities Of The Role

• Technical leadership: Lead DS development projects as part of cross‑functional deliveries with colleagues from our allied teams: Product, Analytics, Science, and Engineering.
• Own the design and delivery of large‑scale data science solutions.
• Drive wider ML transformation programmes to support large business areas to become more data‑driven, through coordinating requirements gathering, resource allocation and managing dependencies.
• Prioritise work across complex delivery programmes and help team members prioritise the right things at the right time.
• Articulate value statements for Data Science work and produce meaningful measurement methodologies to measure business impact of your solutions.

Line management, Coaching and Team Building

• Line manage and develop our data science talent.
• Conduct code reviews and model our team’s technical standards.
• Identify opportunities for team upskilling.
• Take ownership of or lead one of our strategic initiatives: i.e. ML Ops, coding standards, training etc.
• Pair program with other data scientists.

Essential Criteria

• Educated to degree level, preferably within a mathematical, statistical or STEM discipline.
• A solid track record of individually contributing to value‑driving data science projects in a commercial setting.
• Strong proficiency with Python, SQL, and the data science stack (pandas, NumPy, scikit‑learn, etc.).
• Experience with writing production‑grade code using Python and SQL, as some of our systems involve real‑time inference that affect millions of customer transactions.
• Experience deploying models in cloud environments (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Solid presentation skills and business acumen, you can translate an unstructured business problem into a meaningful data science project.
• Strong statistical foundation in concepts such as regression, hypothesis testing and experimental design.
• Highly proficient in Git best practices.

Desirable Experience

• Experience performing as technical lead for ML/AI projects.
• Experience building or maintaining machine learning pipelines and endpoints in Azure ML.
• Experience delivering value on ML projects in retail (in areas such as price elasticity or differential pricing) or supply chain (demand forecasting, optimisation etc.).
• Our products often utilise mathematical optimisation, so experience in this area is highly desirable.
• Experience managing data science teams, especially as part of cross‑functional programmes.
• A background in academic research in a highly numerate field.
• Deep technical knowledge in one or more data science areas: casual ML, GNNs, forecasting, optimisation, operations research, etc.
• Experience developing agentic based workflows or managing LLMs in production.

Benefits

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new — whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business — and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

• Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year.
• We’ve also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover.
• You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance‑related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.
• Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy up to an additional week's holiday, and we provide private healthcare.
• We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle‑to‑work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before payday) as well as access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers.
• And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme.
• Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).