Lead Data Scientist - Public Sector

Salary: £100,000 - 100,000 per year

Requirements:

• A minimum of a 2.1 degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Statistics, or a similar quantitative field.
• Deep understanding and development experience with AI/ML models, including time series, supervised and unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and LLMs.
• Experience with modern AI engineering approaches such as prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agentic AI.
• Strong Python skills with a grounding in software engineering best practices, including CI/CD, testing, and code reviews.
• Expertise in data engineering for AI, including handling large-scale, unstructured, and multimodal data.
• Understanding of responsible AI principles, model interpretability, and ethical considerations.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to lead client projects and establish requirements in non-technical language.
• Experience managing, coaching, and developing junior team members and the wider community.
• Active UK Government Security Clearance.
• Desirable: demonstrable experience with modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, fine-tuning or distillation of LLMs, and machine learning libraries such as scikit-learn or XGBoost.
• Desirable: experience with data storage for AI, vector databases, semantic search, and knowledge graphs.
• Desirable: contributions to open-source AI projects or research publications.
• Desirable: familiarity with AI security, privacy, and compliance standards such as ISO42001.

Responsibilities:

• Architect, design, and deliver advanced AI solutions leveraging machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI technologies.
• Drive adoption of modern AI frameworks, AIOps best practices, and scalable cloud-native architectures.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership and collaborate with customers to translate business challenges into trustworthy AI solutions.
• Ensure responsible AI practices throughout delivery.
• Mentor team members and foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.
• Make sound, reasoned decisions in a fast-paced environment while learning new technologies and approaches.
• Manage, coach, and develop a small number of staff, with a focus on performance management and career development.
• Provide direction and leadership for the team as you solve challenging problems together.

Technologies:

• Agentic AI
• AI
• AWS
• Architect
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• Fine-tuning
• Support
• Machine Learning
• PyTorch
• Python
• RAG
• Security
• TensorFlow

More:

We are Kainos, a people-first company known for problem solving, innovation, and collaboration. We are one of the UKs leading AI and data businesses, with a decade-long track record of delivering production-grade AI solutions across government, healthcare, defence, and commercial sectors. Our 150-strong AI and Data Practice brings together expertise in machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI, and data, and we are trusted by Microsoft, AWS, and others to deliver advanced AI and data solutions at citizen scale. We are pioneers in responsible AI and are committed to a diverse, inclusive culture where ideas are valued, growth is supported, and contributions make a real difference. We also offer a friendly recruitment experience and can support candidates who need accommodations or adjustments during the process.

last updated 35 week of 2026