Head of Data Science

**Head of Data Science**

We're Policy Expert, a home and motor insurance provider and we're on a mission to shake up the personal insurance industry. We feel that insurers have under-served customers for too long with confusing policies, expensive renewals and frustrating claims processes. It is time to put customers first

Since we formed in 2011, we've been using breakthrough thinking and proprietary tech to provide insurance that's clear, fair and great value. And people like what we do. So much so that we now have well over one million customers, driven by our double-digit growth. We also take great pride in having been the UK's No.1-rated home insurance provider for 9 years.

We have big aspirations. Our 'North Star' is 'To be the most successful insurance disruptor people want to stay with for life'. As we grow, we plan on continuing to challenge the norms of an insurance industry whose reputation for customer trust is low, where switching between providers is high and insurance cover is often seen as a costly 'grudge purchase'.

We aim to build longer and deeper relationships with our customers and to help them see insurance as being a help, not a hindrance.

**About Data Science at Policy Expert**

This is an exciting time for us as we setup a dedicated Data Science team to support our ambitious growth plans. We'll be able to continue developing our market leading pricing models, but this is just the start. The team will give us the ability to create a best in class customer experience, starting from acquisition and continuing all the way through to claims. We'll be able to understand who our customers are in a detail that's not been possible before. We've got a huge amount of backing from our leadership team, allowing us to make decisions quickly and react to an ever-changing market. This autonomy gives us the edge over competition and allows us to stay nimble as we scale. The next 24 months will be pivotal as Policy Expert embarks on its new chapter.

**The role and what you'll be doing**

As Head of Data Science you'll lead on our strategy and roadmap for using data science and ML initiatives to support our ambitious growth plans. Activities will include:

- Recruiting, leading and mentoring our Data Science team, and creating a community of practise to share knowledge and expertise.
- Develop and own a roadmap for implementing Data Science across our business areas.
- Continuously improving our engineering practices across data science products to operate at pace and at scale.
- Be a champion of data science and ML, communicating it's value to colleagues across the business.
- Oversee, and contribute to, the development of machine learning models, working closely with the Machine Learning Engineers to ensure they are working as expected in production.
- Work closely with the Data Engineers and Analysts to source data needed from our systems and third-party suppliers.

**What we are looking for**
- You are customer focused. You can find the right balance between outcome delivery and technical excellence.
- Experience leading and managing Data Scientists, while also doing hands-on work.
- Excellent communication skills with both technical and non technical audiences.
- Knowledge of the latest technologies in the Data Science and ML space, and enjoy sharing your knowledge with your team and colleagues.
- Experience building machine learning models and working with ML Engineers to deploy them into production.
- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of data science tools and techniques, which you can use to solve problems creatively and to create opportunities for the business.
- Good programming skills with R or Python and good working knowledge of SQL and experience querying large datasets.
- Understand software architecture and how to write efficient, optimised code.
- Knowledge of the insurance industry would be an advantage but not essential.
- Ideally you will have experience working with the AWS SageMaker, or similar services.

**What we offer**

We want everyone to feel valued and rewarded in their work. We therefore offer all employees:

- Private medical cover with Vitality
- Dental Insurance
- Hybrid working
- Training and education through LinkedIn learning and Plurasight
- Travel season ticket loan
- Social events through the year
- Access to selected London O2 events and use of a Private Lounge.
- Employee Wellbeing Programme