Head of Data Science

Head of Data Science HEAD OF DATA SCIENCE Hybrid in London, United Kingdom We’re looking for a Head of Data Science You’ll lead multiple data science teams whose work guides decision-making across lending, product, operations, and strategy. You’ll shape how we work, ensuring that analytical insight directly influences the choices that matter most at iwoca. The company Small businesses move fast. Opportunities often don’t wait, and cash flow pressures can appear overnight. To keep going, and growing, SMEs need finance that’s as flexible and responsive as they are. That's why we built iwoca. Our smart technology, data science and five-star customer service ensures business owners can act with the speed, confidence and control they need, exactly when it's needed. We’ve already cleared the way for 100,000 businesses with more than £4 billion in funding. Our passionate team is driven to help even more SMEs succeed, through access to better finance and other services that make running a business easier. Our ultimate mission is to support one million SMEs in their defining moments, creating lasting impact for the communities and economies they drive. The team iwoca’s data scientists build probabilistic and statistical models that make lending decisions in real time, support forecasting and shape commercial strategy. Their work is deployed in production code and makes real-time lending decisions; it’s more than exploratory analysis. Successfully leading iwoca’s data science teams will require close collaboration with engineering, product, and commercial teams. The role As the Head of Data Science, you’ll lead a group that focuses on rigorous, interpretable, and commercially useful modelling that is deployed, monitored, and maintained in production. You’ll set direction, shape team structure, and ensure the function’s work is grounded in commercial context and used by decision-makers across iwoca. The group has approximately 25 data scientists, with most working in a central team and some smaller groups aligned to specific products or domains. You’ll report to one of iwoca’s co-founders, who is also a data scientist. - Strategic direction You’ll work with the team leads and senior data scientists who coordinate day-to-day work. You’ll help them plan, sequence, and review projects and maintain consistent standards of reasoning, communication, and methodology. You’ll help the teams decide where and how to apply their efforts – identifying where modelling adds value and where a lighter heuristic approach could be more effective. - Technical and people leadership You’ll oversee hiring and development, ensuring assessment, progression, and knowledge-sharing are fair, structured, and suited to a growing multi-team environment. You’ll shape how data science is applied at scale — how uncertainty is communicated, how analytical support is allocated, and how the function directs its effort to the highest-value work. - Collaboration with engineering and business teams You’ll coordinate with Engineering, Product, and Operations teams so that projects are properly scoped, resourced, and aligned with wider priorities. You’ll represent the function in discussions that shape lending, risk, and product decisions by explaining assumptions, highlighting risks, and helping senior stakeholders act on analytical insight. The requirements Essential - Strategic leadership: You have experience setting data science strategy and aligning work with commercial goals. You can translate technical modelling for senior stakeholders, make assumptions explicit, and shape the decisions that follow. - Production experience: You have managed the full lifecycle of models in production – deploying, monitoring, and retiring them. You are comfortable coordinating chains of model dependencies across different teams. - Commercial acumen: You understand how modelling supports business decisions and know when to make trade-offs between depth, delivery time, ... (truncated, view full listing at source)