Senior Data Scientist

London, UK (hybrid), with regular travel to our laboratory in Liège, Belgium. Signatur Biosciences was established with the mission of making cutting-edge diagnostic tools accessible to more patients around the world. We have developed a technology to profile complex molecular signatures in a single reaction, using the qPCR machines already in place in every biomedical lab around the world. We have a workforce in London, UK, and a laboratory facility in Liège, Belgium. We are building towards being an AI-native company — using data and AI as a default part of how we work, not an afterthought — and this role is central to that ambition.

About the role: We are looking for an exceptional Senior Data Scientist to join us in London. This is the first dedicated data science hire at Signatur, and you will shape how data is used across the company from the ground up. You will report to our Chief Scientific Officer.

The role sits at the centre of three things:

• The modelling that underpins our assays — applying machine learning and statistical methods to development data to help select signatures, optimise panels and predict performance.
• The day-to-day data science: analysis across the business, from exploratory work through to clear recommendations, and the lightweight infrastructure that makes results reproducible.
• Our shift towards working AI-natively — building and championing the tooling that lets a small team move like a much larger one.

You will thrive here if you are comfortable with the pace and ambiguity of an early-stage company, move fast and take pragmatic shortcuts to validate or invalidate ideas quickly, and take real ownership — anticipating problems and finding creative ways around them rather than waiting for a brief.

Main responsibilities:

• Apply machine learning and statistical modelling to assay development data — signature selection, panel optimisation and performance prediction — working closely with the scientific team in Liège.
• Lead end-to-end data analysis across the business, from exploratory analysis through to clear, actionable recommendations.
• Help every team define and quantify what success looks like, build precise, measurable plans to reach it, and track progress closely, adjusting fast as things change.
• Build lightweight, reproducible analysis pipelines and the shared data foundations the laboratory and development teams need to work from one source of truth.
• Champion a data-driven culture and build the AI tooling that accelerates our own work — finding where AI genuinely removes effort, and making it usable by the rest of the team.
• Communicate findings clearly to non-technical stakeholders, including leadership.

Essential skills and experience:

• Minimum MSc or MRes in a quantitative, life sciences or related field.
• Strong foundation in statistics and quantitative methods, with demonstrable experience applying them to real, messy datasets.
• Hands-on experience applying machine learning to scientific, experimental or otherwise complex real-world data — not only to clean benchmark problems.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL for data analysis.
• Fluency with modern AI tools and a real drive to apply them to streamline work.
• A track record of independently owning data work and driving it to real impact, rather than executing tasks handed to you.
• Comfortable working independently in a fast-paced, high-ownership startup environment — taking pragmatic shortcuts and failing fast to learn quickly.
• Self-motivated, ambitious and driven: anticipates problems and finds creative solutions to make things happen.
• Right to work in the UK, or eligibility for UK visa sponsorship (available for this role).

Desirable skills and experience:

• PhD in a quantitative or life sciences field, particularly with a biological or experimental research angle.
• Experience with large biological, genomic or high-dimensional experimental datasets.
• Familiarity with diagnostic or assay data and performance metrics (sensitivity/specificity, ROC, limits of detection).
• Proficiency in R.
• Experience building internal tooling with LLMs or agentic workflows.
• Previous experience in an early-stage startup.
• Experience in a regulated environment (IVDR / ISO 13485).

What we offer:

• Competitive salary, based on experience.
• Meaningful equity / share options, as a foundational early hire.
• Company pension.

Signatur Biosciences is an equal-opportunity employer promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace.