Head of Data Science in London

Join to apply for the Head of Data Science role at iwoca Deutschland. Overview Hybrid in London, United Kingdom. You will lead multiple data science teams whose work guides decision‐making across lending, product, operations, and strategy. You will shape how we work, ensuring that analytical insight directly influences the choices that matter most at iwoca.

Responsibilities

• Strategic direction: Work with team leads and senior data scientists to plan, sequence, and review projects, maintain consistent standards of reasoning, communication, and methodology. Decide where modelling adds value and where a lighter heuristic approach could be more effective.
• Technical and people leadership: Oversee hiring and development, ensuring assessment, progression, and knowledge‐sharing are fair, structured, and suited to a growing multi‐team environment. Shape how data science is applied at scale – how uncertainty is communicated, how analytical support is allocated, and how the function directs its effort to the highest‐value work.
• Collaboration with engineering and business teams: Coordinate with Engineering, Product, and Operations teams so that projects are properly scoped, resourced, and aligned with wider priorities. Represent the function in discussions that shape lending, risk, and product decisions by explaining assumptions, highlighting risks, and helping senior stakeholders act on analytical insight.

Qualifications

• Strategic leadership: You have experience setting data science strategy and aligning work with commercial goals. You can translate technical modelling for senior stakeholders, make assumptions explicit, and shape the decisions that follow.
• Production experience: You have managed the full lifecycle of models in production – deploying, monitoring, and retiring them. You are comfortable coordinating chains of model dependencies across different teams.
• Commercial acumen: You understand how modelling supports business decisions and know when to make trade‐offs between depth, delivery time, and value.
• Team development: You have a track record of hiring and developing data scientists, and establishing consistent standards for planning, peer review, and methodology.
• Technical background: You have a background in probability, statistics, or a related quantitative field such as mathematics or physics and can evaluate analytical work for conceptual soundness.

Bonus

• Experience shaping an R&D or modelling agenda, including probabilistic or long‐term forecasting work.
• Experience in domains such as credit risk, lending, or customer lifetime value.
• Experience representing a data science function externally (for example, industry events or publications).

Salary

We expect to pay from £120,000 to £170,000 for this role. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates and run quarterly performance and salary reviews.

Culture

At iwoca, we prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. We value thought and skill diversity, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us innovate and improve our products and services.

Benefits

• Flexible working hours.
• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
• A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents.
• 25 days' holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional five days of annual leave, and unlimited unpaid leave.
• A one‐month, fully paid sabbatical after four years.
• Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions for team members that need emotional or mental health support.
• 3% Pension contributions on total earnings.
• An employee equity incentive scheme.
• Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
• Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme.
• Two company retreats a year.