Senior Data Science Manager

Contract: Permanent

Location: Flexible 

The OVO Group’s purpose is to drive progress towards net zero carbon living. To reach Plan Zero, we need everyone to come together - not just as customers buying energy, but as members with a common goal. As part of this ambitious plan, our goal is to become the ‘Leading Employer in the UK’ by 2030. If you think you could be the talent we’re looking for, then come and join the adventure!

 

Where in the world of OVO will I be working?

As OVO moves closer to 5m customers, we are starting to reshape our data teams to enable our strategy to provide a world leading, carbon net zero, and digitally enabled experience. The data teams operate in a federated structure, with both central and embedded teams, to support our growing scale and ambition.

Reporting into the Head of Data Science for Retail, you will manage a team of data scientists and analysts developing innovative data products that deliver great business outcomes for our Retail teams. Your team will own the end to end development of machine learning models, covering prediction, propensity, segmentation and NLP (and more!). You’ll be responsible for engaging with different business teams to understand their data science needs and prioritising projects with your stakeholders. You’ll also support the development of your team through mentoring and achievable career progression plans.

Diverse teams are the best teams. Only when we represent everyone, can we create services which benefit everyone. We’re keen to meet people with varied backgrounds: the more inclusive we are the better our work will be. We understand some people may not apply to jobs unless they tick every box. And we know 'normal' office hours don't work for everyone, so we're open to discussing flexible working requests. If you're excited about joining us and think you have much of what we're looking for, even if you're not 100% sure… we'd love to hear from you.

 

What will I be doing?

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead and inspire a core Data Science team of specialists in machine learning, operational research and data engineering. 
• Provide technical guidance, people management and ways of working improvements to the team.
• Engage with key stakeholders and senior leadership to set and define key metric objectives and identify areas where data science can deliver the highest impact.
• Take ownership of business objectives for your team. This includes (but is not limited to) initial scoping; appropriately managing the team’s time and level of support; and ensuring high quality work is delivered on time.
• Champion the value of data science and advise on appropriate use of data in the business. Work closely with the other data/tech teams to collaborate and leverage cross functional expertise.
• Help define best practices in data science and ensure they are followed. This includes documentation and reproducibility practices; assessing and implementing appropriate tooling; and platforms for data science collaboration.
• Have oversight over the quality of models and frameworks generated by the team. This includes ensuring productionised work is well monitored and maintained after release.
• Assess ways to improve and supplement the data we collect, as well as the approaches we take, using third parties.

Is this the job for me?

 

Essential skills and experience:

• Experience in leading a team, producing data solutions and actionable tools/insights for stakeholders.

• Proven ability to deliver high-quality data science projects end to end, translating into true commercial impact within a business.
• Theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience in advanced data science techniques. Excellent database querying skills and good programming experience, with commercial experience in one of the following: Python, R, Scala.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills - able to articulate results clearly and concisely to senior stakeholders. Ability to consult with, and sometimes challenge, teams of differing levels of data science knowledge.
• Skilled in building relationships and managing the priorities of multiple stakeholders.
• Experience managing data specialists embedded in cross functional product and technology teams.

• Ability to support career progression for a team, including choosing career paths and advising on development opportunities.
• Spot opportunities for data science, and support conversations regarding ‘buy or build your own’ decisions.

Ideally you will have…

• Degree educated in a numeric, scientific or engineering discipline.  Masters/PhD advantageous.
• Experience in cloud data services, Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Azure etc

 

From us you’ll get* 

• 4% of your salary to spend on flexible lifestyle benefits
• 5% matched employer contribution to your pension
• 25 days holiday + 1 for your birthday
• Flexible working hours
• And many more... 

(*) Please note that certain benefits kick-in once you have passed probation which can be up to 6 months after your start date.

 

At OVO, we empower our people to have choice around where and when they work - flexible working arrangements can be discussed for all of our roles. Please speak to the Talent Acquisition team for more info.

 

Learn more about working in the OVO family of companies on our careers page and Glassdoor. We’re also delighted to have received a Top Employers certificate in 2018, 2019 and 2020!