Lead Data Scientist
About us
We are a leading consultancy with a purpose to make an enduring impact on health and healthcare. We work with leaders and frontline teams to improve health, transform healthcare, drive adoption of innovation and create value through investment.
Our consultancy serves the entire healthcare sector, from payors and providers of care, to life science companies, health tech and sector suppliers and health investors. We provide end-to-end services, from strategy through implementation, accelerated by data, digital and AI.
We shape opinion through evidence-based thought leadership on key issues affecting health. With unmatched ability to access and use health data, our consultants are a driving force for delivering positive and meaningful change.
Our strategic intent
We are focused on building the leading consulting company dedicated to health. We serve the entire healthcare sector, including healthcare systems (providers, payors and regulators), life sciences (pharmaceuticals, biotech, devices and diagnostics), health technology, health investors, and the wider supplier landscape.
We provide end-to-end services, from strategy through implementation, supporting organisations to improve population health and healthcare outcomes. Our work spans strategy and transformation, finance and performance improvement, and delivery accelerated by data, digital and AI. We help clients understand their ambitions, identify opportunities to create value, apply innovation in practice, and deliver sustainable, measurable change.
Our consulting is accelerated by data. With an unmatched ability to access and use health data, we are recognised for our expertise in its safe and responsible application, improving health and healthcare delivery, supporting adoption of innovation, generating evidence, and informing decision-making. Our engineering and data science capabilities underpin our consulting and are also deployed directly with clients, often as part of multidisciplinary teams.
We are building a community of expert consultants who want to operate at the leading edge of the profession and who share a passion for health. Through structured career development from Analyst to Partner, underpinned by apprenticeship, mentorship and formal training, we are cultivating the leaders of the future and supporting individuals to develop distinctive expertise that creates value for our clients.
Our Mission
Our mission is to be invaluable to our clients, supporting them to innovate and make lasting improvements and to build an exceptional company that attracts, develops, and retains a trusted and uniquely talented team.
Role summary
The Lead Data Scientist is a senior technical leader at CF, responsible for driving data science strategy and innovation in line with company goals. The Lead Data Scientist oversees the development and implementation of data-driven solutions that enhance our service offerings and ways of working. They apply evaluation approaches and ensure these solutions deliver quantifiable impact, drive efficiencies and optimise value for money for our clients and for CF. These solutions are required for our clients directly, for the management consulting team to leverage in their client service delivery, and for the corporate operations of the business. The Lead Data Scientist collaborates with clients, CF team members (both technical and non-technical), and partner organisations to understand requirements and develop highly effective solutions.
The Lead Data Scientist leads and manages technical components of blended projects, offering oversight, mentorship, and quality assurance to junior employees in the Data Innovation team. They proactively identify and solve challenges in client projects and corporate initiatives while supporting business development efforts relating to technical services. The Lead Data Scientist also contributes to proposal development, technical bid writing, and resource planning to drive business growth.
Being agile and unfazed by rapidly evolving and emerging priorities will be critical in this role as will being open to new ideas and entrepreneurial to enable CF to grow and capitalise on new opportunities.
The Lead Data Scientist is responsible for achieving commercial performance targets and for sound financial management of the data innovation team. This includes supporting revenue generation through technical innovation, managing project budgets, and ensuring expenditure is aligned to strategic priorities and the agreed annual business plan. The role is expected to identify and mitigate financial risks to maximise the financial performance of the company.
As a core member of CF’s senior leadership team, clear communication and strong interpersonal skills are essential, role modelling the leadership behaviours we are committed to at every level of the company. When working with colleagues in CF, clients, suppliers, and people seeking to engage CF, professionalism, kindness, diplomacy and professionalism are essential qualities.
Responsibilities
Strategy
- Own the data science strategy that harmonises with and underpins the corporate strategy.
- Collaborate with the corporate team to convert the strategy into the annual business plan for the data innovation team.
- Discover and implement new data science methodologies that yield competitive advantage.
- Spot emerging market trends and disruptions to drive development of CF solutions that address future client challenges.
- Identify and gain access to data that underpins the corporate strategy while ensuring data privacy compliance.
- Keep abreast of AI and machine learning advancements as they apply to healthcare and consulting.
- Develop and execute plans for data-driven insights to improve healthcare outcomes.
Business development
- Support business development activities including proposal development, engaging with prospective clients and pitching for work.
- Grow and nurture a network of data science leaders across the healthcare markets CF serves.
- Promote CF as a data science innovator through thought leadership and public engagements.
- Contribute to technical bid writing and accurately scope technical resources.
Client delivery
- Collaborate with senior clients to understand their needs and deliver impactful data science solutions.
- Oversee technical workplans to ensure timely and effective project delivery.
- Develop predictive models and insightful visualisations that drive client decision-making.
- Lead and develop innovative prototypes to open up new opportunities.
- Support teams in effective integrated working between consulting and technical teams.
Data operations and infrastructure
- Provide direction to the evolution of data operations in line with corporate strategies.
- Support the data operations function with the design of scalable and secure technical architecture.
- Ensure data access, curation, and maintenance meet client and business objectives.
Team leadership and development
- Provide mentorship and coaching to junior data scientists and analysts.
- Act as a development sponsor for staff, ensuring alignment with technical career tracks.
- Support the recruitment and development of staff, promoting a culture of continuous learning.
- Foster a high-performing team culture through collaboration, excellence, and innovation.
Cyber security and compliance
- Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations and information security best practices.
- Contribute to maintaining CF's ISO 27001 certification and data protection processes.
Requirements
We are ideally seeking candidates with a combination of the following skills and experiences:
Mandatory:
- Bachelor's or Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics).
- Extensive experience delivering technical data science projects across healthcare or related industries.
- Strong programming skills in Python and SQL and proficiency in data science frameworks.
- Experience deploying models in cloud environments and containerisation.
- Excellent problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
- Experience working with relational database systems and cloud platforms.
- Deep understanding of statistical methods and machine learning techniques.
- Demonstrated experience leading and mentoring data science teams.
Preferred:
- Experience working in healthcare or life sciences consulting
- Experience with population health management and RWE
- Familiarity with healthcare data sources, standards, and regulatory requirements
- Knowledge of natural language processing and AI techniques
- Experience with big data technologies and frameworks
Flexible working
Our default is to work in person with our clients, but we also support remote working. Team members can work from home one day per week as standard, and we offer an additional 44 remote working days per year. This allows you to work from home up to two days per week-subject to client needs- or use your allowance in blocks, depending on what works best for you. Office hours are flexible within our core hours of 10am–4pm.
Benefits
- We offer a competitive and flexible reward package designed to support you at work and beyond it. You will benefit from a generous holiday allowance that grows with your career (minimum of 25 days), a strong employer pension contribution, and the freedom to tailor benefits to suit your lifestyle, from wellbeing and fitness to financial protection.
- We are committed to supporting life’s important moments, with enhanced family leave, income and life protection, and access to practical benefits that make everyday life easier, such as interest-free loans and travel support.
- Your wellbeing matters to us. You will have access to a comprehensive wellbeing and employee assistance programme, preventative health benefits, and initiatives that support an active, balanced way of working.
- Above all, we invest in our people; offering flexibility, security, and benefits that grow with you, so you can do your best work while building a sustainable and rewarding career.