Senior Data Scientist

Welcome to Hastings Direct. We’re a digital insurance provider with ambitious plans to become the best and biggest in the UK market. We’ve made huge investments in our pricing and data capabilities over the past few years, along with nurturing our 4Cs culture.

Location: London / Leicester

We provide insurance for over four million customers, but we know there’s even bigger opportunity out there – our Pricing, Data and Analytics community value curiosity, collaboration and constructive challenge. We are always looking for new ideas and diverse perspectives to question established thinking and drive meaningful change. Great pricing is built on trust, innovation and precision, so our aim is to ensure customers receive a fair and accurate price based on their individual risk, supporting fair outcomes, while delivering sustainable and profitable growth for our company. Pricing is more than just a number – it’s a strategic capability. At the heart of Hastings is deep risk insight – continually improving how we assess, segment and price risk through data and analytics.

Job Description – Working as part of the Pricing team within the Alternative Pricing Department (APP) you will be central to the evolution of our pricing. You will have the opportunity to innovate through suggesting new approaches, exploring them using cutting edge technology and deploying them through market leading rating mechanisms. You’ll have a vast array of datasets, some unique to Hastings, to work with to enhance our models and maintain our position as a leader in data and analytics in the UK general insurance market. This role focuses on deep analysis of our portfolio through new and existing data to support iterative improvements to our pricing. We’re looking for a curious mind that can explore our performance from many different angles and use this insight to propose changes to our approach. Hastings has a pricing, data and analytics community of 200+ individuals with a huge breadth and depth of expertise. We’re at the forefront of change and you’ll have an opportunity to play a part in this while learning from the best people in the market!

Accountabilities –

• Challenge the status quo in insurance pricing by developing innovative pricing solutions
• Own the end to end delivery of pricing changes from concept to live deployment
• Seek out new data opportunities and work to extract value from them
• Develop best in-class models to predict claims outcomes, fraud and other risk KPIs
• Support the development of junior analysts within the team

Skills Knowledge & Experience -

• Proficiency in Python, SQL, Azure ML, Git, Azure Cloud Services (Essential)
• Multiple track record of delivery of ML projects from EDA to deployment, post deployment evaluation and model refreshing. (Essential)
• Work accurately and independently with little supervision when required (Essential)
• 3 – 6 years’ experience in data science roles (Essential)
• Knowledge of UK motor insurance market (Desirable)
• Nearly / newly qualified actuary (Desirable)

The Interview Process:

• Recruiter screening call
• 1st stage interview – Initial Intro with hiring leader
• 2nd interview (Technical) will include panel
• 3rd Short call with Hiring Leader

As a Disability Confident employer, we’re committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are fully inclusive – what this means to you is if you’re applying for a job with us, you’ll have fair access to support and adjustments throughout your recruitment journey. We also welcome applications through the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS).

Benefits:

• In addition to a competitive salary and £5k car allowance you will also receive…
• Flexible working – we champion a flexible hybrid working approach
• Competitive bonus scheme - all colleagues are eligible for our annual 4Cs performance bonus
• Physical wellbeing – Hastings pays for you to receive private medical Insurance (PMI)
• Financial wellbeing – providing you with 4x your salary with our life assurance cover, income protection at no extra cost, and matched pension contributions up to 10%
• Mental wellbeing programme – we have the thrive mental health app, our colleague assistance programme available 24/7, and support groups
• 27 days annual leave + bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell one of your weeks
• Access to our health care cash back 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

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. Our 4Cs principles are simple: we believe by creating the right culture for our colleagues and giving them the right tools to do their job, we’ll deliver good outcomes for every customer, helping us to grow the company profitably and sustainably and allowing us to invest in the communities we serve.

At Hastings Direct, we’re committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, we encourage you to be open with us. Our recruitment team is here to provide the support you need to ensure a fair and accessible experience for all. 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.