Head of Analytics & Data Science Decision Sciences & Machine Learning · ·

The Role

Optima Partners is a forward-thinking professional services firm on an exciting growth trajectory. As we expand from 50 to 200 employees over the next two years, we are strengthening our team and are now looking for a skilled and experiencedHead of Analytics & Data Scienceto lead and guide a team of data science professionals in the data space to help our clients deliver on their chosen business priorities.

As Head of Analytics and Data Science, you will play a leading role in driving the analytics & data science agenda in the Advanced Data Practice. Your primary role will be to develop and grow a team of data analysts and data scientists as they deliver across a varied portfolio of client facing projects. You will support business development leads in creating and converting new opportunities, as the technical authority on application of data science in use cases across all our sectors.

You will use your knowledge and practical experience to develop a best practice operating model to assure robust and commercially viable machine learning solutions are deployed and adopted with clients. You will line-manage members of the Decision Sciences and Machine Learning team, setting their goals, helping their personal development and enhancing overall colleague satisfaction.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a passionate and experienced data science practitioner looking to progress their career in a leadership role, to drive forward an ambitious data science agenda. In return, you will benefit from our Advanced Data Practice’s continuous learning and development, helping us all to stay at the forefront of a fast-paced data-driven world.

Key Responsibilities

• Line Management: Managing 8-10 team data scientists and analysts (via 2-3 lead/managers), looking after their performance, PDP and career growth. Keeping abreast of their workstack, client engagements and contribution to the DSML knowledge base. Looking after their wellbeing and pastoral care.
• Client delivery:Delivery assurance on client projects, principally in the role of a technical oversight or technical expert. Providing client teams with best practice methods and standards in principled application of data science to achieve business goals. Ensuring robust project management and consulting approaches are trained and adhered to, and providing oversight/quality checking of models and client facing insights.
• Business and Commercial Development: support the Director of DSML and Director of Solutions in maturing BD opportunities, by co-attending sessions (on-site or remote), co-authoring slide materials. Work with the Commercial function to solidify our data science footprint in existing clients, ensuring strong health of existing engagements and roll-overs, and providing relevant information into commercial planning material.
• Financial Discipline:support the DSML director in having an accurate view of the team’s key financial metrics (Metrics That Matter) supporting tight team discipline on commercial draw-down and reporting.

You will work with the delivery team and client engagement managers to set standard ways of working and templated approaches to different types of engagements.

You will be a natural communicator, able to articulate business problems/requirements to data scientists and engineers within delivery teams and data science/engineering solutions and concepts to business stakeholders. You will also have had experience in delivering technical data projects or have a strong grounding in delivery of large-scale data projects and have performed a translation role between business and technical stakeholders.

Skills and ExperienceThe Person

• A highly motivated, enthused, and energised attitude.
• A solution-finding mindset that seeks solutions rather than spots obstacles.
• Passion to foster a One-Team mentality, through driving and promoting a dynamic team activity agenda.
• A passion to nurture and grow talent in the Advanced Data Practice.

Qualifications and Education Requirements

• Min 2.1 degree in a scientific/mathematical discipline (STEM).
• Preferably a MSc/other postgraduate degree in a quantitative discipline.
• A postgraduate degree (MSc/PhD) in a quantitative discipline.
• Desired: professional qualification or membership of a data science-related body.

Key Technical Skills

• Ability to abstract complex business problems into data, model and decisioning ecosystems, articulating clearly to business leaders how these assets fit together and address their problem.
• Advanced knowledge of Statistics (including design and analysis of experiments, uncertainty quantification, range of predictive modelling methods).
• Advanced knowledge of ML techniques (in both a supervised and unsupervised learning context).
• Proficient in a range of programming languages (Python and/or R preferable, SQL, C#, Java).
• Solid grasp of popular and emerging technology stack for building and orchestrating ML solutions and decision algorithms, such as Databricks.
• A strong grasp of profit-loss dynamics and value drivers in a range of commercial settings.

Key Business Skills

• Ability to spot commercial opportunities for data science use cases in existing and new client conversations.
• Excellent people skills, with ability to engage confidently with senior/C-suite leadership within clients.
• Strong coaching and mentoring skills.
• Excellent written and presentation skills.

The Company

Optima Partners is an advanced data and business consultancy headquartered in Edinburgh, UK. We are a practitioner-led organisation that collaborates with top consumer brands to drive transformation and foster customer-centricity through our expertise in customer strategy, innovative design, and advanced data science and engineering.

We help our clients get closer to their customers, to truly understand them, and deliver exactly the right products, engagement, and experiences across all channels and interactions. We specialise in unlocking latent value within organisations through a three-pronged approach that focuses on identifying and enhancing value for customers, within the customer base, and within the business itself. In doing so, we foster sustainable value, paving the way for consistent business growth.

We work with leading consumer brands to tackle and overcome complex business and customer problems to drive transformation and champion customer-centric agendas. We are proud to include some of the leading UK and global brands among our current clients such as Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group, Bank of Ireland, Nationwide, Aviva, Biogen, Eon Next, OVO, Virgin Media O2, BT, HMD Global, Centrica, and GSK. We are obsessive about delivering value for our clients and work in a collaborative, engaged, and creative way with our colleagues and clients. We strive to support the transition of knowledge and capability into strategic teams.

In the pharmaceutical sector, we are internationally recognised for our expertise in early-phase drug discovery, genomics, and human genetics. In late 2023, we proudly launched our new division, bioXcelerate AI, which stands at the forefront of revolutionising life sciences and healthcare research. bioXcelerate AI uses state-of-the-art data science and proprietary algorithms to accelerate the transformation of data into actionable insights, redefining industry standards.

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