Data Science & AI Lead in Birmingham

Join us as a Data Science & AI Lead. In this key role, you’ll lead Data Science and AI capabilities for the Economic Crime Hub, designing, building, and scaling production-grade models, AI systems, and automated decisioning solutions. You’ll own the end-to-end lifecycle of models and AI agents, ensuring decisions are executed safely, consistently, and effectively at scale.

Make an impact by building a high-performing Data Science and Machine Learning (ML) Engineering capability that drives innovation and business outcomes through AI and advanced analytics.

What you'll do:

• Own the end-to-end Data Science and AI agenda, delivering scalable models, AI systems, and agentic workflows embedded within decision-making across the Hub.
• Oversee the design, build, and deployment of models and AI solutions into production environments, ensuring they deliver reliable, high-performing outcomes that support business objectives at scale.
• Establish and enforce standards for model development, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), monitoring, and lifecycle management.
• Partner closely with Analytics, Product, and Technology teams to translate decision strategies and decision intent into automated, production-grade solutions, ensuring technical feasibility, scalability, and integrity.
• Build and lead a multi-disciplinary Data Science capability, encompassing Data Scientists, ML Engineers, and MLOps specialists.

In addition, you’ll be:

• Acting as the single-threaded owner for the automation of decision-making, translating analytical logic and decision strategies into production-grade models and AI systems across the full lifecycle.
• Overseeing model performance, including accuracy, stability, drift, reliability, and the real-world effectiveness of decision-making in production environments.
• Embedding controls, validation, monitoring, and safeguards into models and AI systems by design.
• Advancing AI and ML capabilities, including agentic AI, Large Language Model (LLM) use cases, MLOps, and automation frameworks.
• Designing scalable architectures, standardised pipelines, and reusable model components to enable efficient and repeatable delivery.
• Building a high-performing Data Science, ML Engineering, and MLOps function, driving technical excellence, innovation, and career development.
• Ensuring models are explainable, traceable, auditable, and compliant with governance frameworks.

The skills you'll need:

We're looking for someone with extensive experience leading engineering-grade Data Science and AI capabilities, delivering scalable, automated decisioning systems. You must have a proven track record of designing and deploying AI-driven solutions, leveraging advanced modelling techniques and emerging approaches such as LLMs and agentic workflows.

Moreover, you'll need to bring technical expertise to lead the delivery of production-grade AI solutions and guide their adoption within a complex, regulated environment. You should also have the ability to provide technical leadership, foster high-performing teams, and drive innovation while maintaining strong governance and risk management practices.

Experience working within financial crime or fraud environments would be preferred.

In addition, you’ll need to demonstrate:

• Deep expertise in model development and lifecycle management, including building, deploying, monitoring, retraining, and retiring models in production environments.
• Strong knowledge of MLOps, model monitoring, and production systems, ensuring the reliability, performance, and operational effectiveness of models and automated decisioning.
• Experience working within regulated environments, with a strong understanding of model governance, explainability, auditability, and data risk management.