Senior / Lead Data Scientist - AI Agents - Outside IR35

Senior Data Scientist – AI Agents
Location: Hybrid, 1 day per week in London
Contract: Outside IR35

We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist with proven experience in the design, deployment, and testing of AI Agent solutions. This role is central to a project building and integrating AI-powered agents into an automated insurance workflow, with a strong emphasis on hands-on delivery and technical leadership.
The position requires someone comfortable working end-to-end: from shaping how LLMs are applied, through to coding integrations and ensuring robust deployment into a cloud environment. Alongside delivery, you will provide guidance and oversight to a junior Data Scientist contributing to the build.
Key Responsibilities
Lead the design and architecture of AI Agent solutions, ensuring they align to integration specifications.
Build, refine, and test prompt engineering methods for large language models.
Develop and validate API integrations to embed agents into live workflows.
Deploy containerised applications into Azure (or another major cloud).
Define and run testing and evaluation frameworks to measure agent performance.
Mentor and support a junior Data Scientist, ensuring high standards of delivery.
Collaborate with architects, engineers, and business teams to embed solutions effectively.
Produce clear reporting on outcomes and outline recommendations for scaling.Required Experience
Advanced proficiency in Python for AI/ML development.
Hands-on experience with LLMs, including prompt engineering and applied use cases.
Track record of designing, deploying, and testing AI Agents in production environments.
Strong understanding of cloud deployments (Azure preferred, others considered).
Experience providing technical oversight and mentoring