Lead Data Scientist in Edinburgh

Salary Range: £92,701 - £109,060

We support flexible working – click here for more information on flexible working options.

Flexible Working Options: Hybrid Working, Job Share

Location: Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester & Bristol

Hours: Full time (35 hours)

Working Pattern: Our work style is hybrid, which involves spending at least two days per week, or 40% of our time, at one of our office sites. Colleagues with disabilities can be supported with workplace adjustments including hybrid working expectations in line with our Flexibility Works policy.

About this opportunity… At Lloyds Banking Group, we’re moving to the next stages of our digital transformation, and it’s our job within the Chief Security Office (CSO) to ensure that we keep our customers, colleagues and assets safe from threat. The CSO’s Security Data and AI lab have a phenomenal opportunity for an experienced and dynamic Lead Data Scientist to work with our Analytics and Data Engineering feature teams. In this role, you’ll be owning the way in transforming how we detect, mitigate, and prevent cyber threats using advanced AI and machine learning. This is a rare opportunity to build the future of cybersecurity in one of the UK’s most data-rich environments.

What you’ll do...

• Own the delivery of security outcomes, including defining and evolving approaches to anomaly detection that balance performance, explainability, and operational risk.
• Lead a team of Data Scientists.
• Drive innovation in LLM-based security automation, including prompt engineering, RAG pipelines, and fine-tuning of models.
• Collaborate with Data Engineers to build scalable, secure, and production-ready ML pipelines on GCP.
• Partner with cyber defence, risk, and compliance teams to ensure models are explainable, ethical, and aligned with regulatory standards (e.g. SOC2, SWIFT, SOX).
• Contribute to the Data Science Community of Practice, helping shape best practices across the organisation.
• Translate sophisticated data insights into actionable intelligence for collaborators across the Group COO and CSO functions.

What you’ll need...

• Confirmed experience in leading data science projects in cybersecurity, fraud, or behavioural analytics.
• Data Engineering - Deep expertise in Python, ML frameworks (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch), and cloud platforms (preferably GCP).
• Deep Learning Theory & Applications - Strong grasp of anomaly detection, time-series modelling, and deep learning architectures.
• Experience with LLMs and generative AI in production environments is highly desirable.
• Artificial Intelligence Ethics - A passion for ethical AI, model governance, and secure ML operations.
• Excellent communication and customer engagement skills.
• Innovators Mentality - An innovator and change agent who keeps up to date with the latest trends and developments in data engineering and cyber security to ensure our strategies remain at the forefront of the industry.

It would be great if you also had… Understanding of the emerging threats within Cyber Security.

About working for us: Our focus is to ensure we're inclusive every day, building an organisation that reflects modern society and celebrates diversity in all its forms. We want our people to feel that they belong and can be their best, regardless of background, identity or culture. We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer initiative. And it’s why we especially welcome applications from under-represented groups. We’re disability confident. So, if you’d like reasonable adjustments to be made to our recruitment processes, just let us know.

We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes:

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%
• An annual bonus award, subject to Group performance
• Share schemes including free shares
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• 30 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

If you’re excited by the thought of becoming part of our team, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you!

At Lloyds Banking Group, we're driven by a clear purpose; to help Britain prosper. Across the Group, our colleagues are focused on making a difference to customers, businesses and communities. With us you'll have a key role to play in shaping the financial services of the future, whilst the scale and reach of our Group means you'll have many opportunities to learn, grow and develop.

We keep your data safe. So, we'll only ever ask you to provide confidential or sensitive information once you have formally been invited along to an interview or accepted a verbal offer to join us which is when we run our background checks. We'll always explain what we need and why, with any request coming from a trusted Lloyds Banking Group person. We're focused on creating a values-led culture and are committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the customers and communities we serve. Together we’re building a truly inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference.