Head of Data in Bristol

We’re working alongside Ecosurety at a pivotal point in their growth. They’re a strong, established business, now placing increased focus on building out a product range that helps organisations make critical decisions about their packaging, improving sustainability while reducing costs.

At the centre of this is a platform that brings together fragmented packaging data, applies complex regulatory logic, and enables customers to model packaging decisions across multiple markets. As this platform evolves, there’s a clear opportunity to go further - moving beyond reporting and compliance into predictive modelling, optimisation, and AI-driven decision support. This role will play a key part in enabling that shift, ensuring the data platform is structured in a way that supports more advanced analytics and machine learning use cases over time.

Data is a critical, funded investment area for the business, with backing already in place and a clear mandate from leadership. What’s missing is the person to define how it all comes together.

Ecosurety is an industry-leading packaging data company on a mission to rid the world of unnecessary packaging, and they’re scaling fast. More than 500 brands and retailers, including some of the UK’s biggest household names, rely on them to navigate complex packaging decisions. They are evolving from a compliance-focused organisation into a data-first product company, building the digital infrastructure that will shape the future of packaging at scale.

This is a true player-coach role, combining strategic ownership with hands-on delivery. You’ll define and own the data strategy, setting direction for how data is structured, used, and scaled across the business.

You’ll be responsible for:

• Defining the data architecture
• Shaping how data supports product and engineering
• Building the data platform from the ground up

A key challenge will be defining what belongs in the data layer vs the application layer - an area that’s currently evolving. You’ll take ownership of how data is ingested, structured, validated, and made usable across the platform, ensuring it’s scalable, traceable, and aligned to both regulatory and product needs.

As the platform matures, you’ll also help enable more advanced capabilities, including predictive modelling, scenario optimisation, and machine learning use cases, ensuring the data foundations are built to support them properly.

In the early stages, you’ll work closely with external delivery partners while building out an internal engineering capability over time. You’ll also be:

• Designing and implementing the core data architecture
• Turning fragmented, manual processes into robust, scalable data pipelines
• Working with messy, multi-source data and shaping it into something usable
• Partnering closely with Engineering and Product to ensure data enables real outcomes
• Introducing the right level of structure, governance, and data quality standards
• Structuring data in a way that supports predictive modelling, optimisation, and future machine learning use cases
• Working with Product and Engineering to identify where data can unlock more intelligent, automated decision-making
• Delivering through a mix of hands-on work, new hires, and external/augmented teams

This is a foundational leadership role. You’ll:

• Build and scale the data team from the ground up
• Define the structure, capabilities, and hiring roadmap
• Work with external partners and consultancies alongside internal hires
• Establish how data operates as a core capability across the business

Over time, this may evolve to include capability across analytics, data science, and machine learning, depending on how the platform and product develop.

In 12 months’ time, you will have:

• Defined and embedded a clear, scalable data strategy
• Built a data platform that reliably supports product use cases
• Established a high-performing data team and delivery model
• Created confidence in data quality, structure, and traceability
• Brought clarity to how data, product, and engineering work together

This is a rare opportunity to join Ecosurety at the exact point they are building a new data and product capability. You’re not inheriting a mature platform or scaling something already defined, you’re defining the strategy, building the platform, and creating the function from the ground up, with real backing from the business.

You’ll also be shaping how the business moves beyond traditional data use, into intelligent, data-driven decision-making powered by modelling and machine learning.

This is one of the first senior technology hires in this new phase of the business. Which means:

• You’ll define and own the data strategy from day one
• You’ll shape how the data function is structured and built
• You’ll play a key role in establishing a data-led product organisation

As the business scales, the scope and impact of the role will naturally grow with it.

You’ve likely:

• Built and scaled data platforms in SaaS or data-led environments
• Worked across data architecture, pipelines, and modelling — not just one area
• Been hands-on with tools like Snowflake, dbt, and Azure (or similar cloud environments)
• Designed and maintained ETL/ELT pipelines, ideally using tools like Azure Data Factory
• Strong SQL skills, including complex querying and performance optimisation
• Experience working with CI/CD pipelines and Git-based workflows
• A solid understanding of data modelling concepts (e.g. star/snowflake schema, slowly changing dimensions)

Nice to have (but not essential):

• Experience working in environments where data supports modelling, forecasting, or machine learning
• Exposure to building or enabling data products that go beyond reporting into decision support or automation

Alongside this, you:

• Are comfortable operating as a player-coach, staying close to the detail while setting direction
• Can move between hands-on problem solving, architecture, and senior stakeholder conversations
• Have experience building teams and capabilities from scratch
• Are comfortable working with both internal teams and external partners
• Know how to balance pragmatism with long-term thinking

Most importantly, you’re someone who can bring clarity to complexity and structure to ambiguity.

From £90,000 salary

Hybrid working (Bristol, 50% office)

High ownership and autonomy

Backed investment in data as a core business priority

Opportunity to build a data platform and team from the ground up

Long-term progression as the business scales

If you’re looking for the chance to define strategy, build a team, and create the foundations of something meaningful, with real backing from the business, this is a genuinely exciting opportunity.