Lead Data Scientist

Our FTSE100, Global organisation continues to grow, moving from strength to strength and as we work towards our Destination 2025 strategy, our journey in the data and insight space continues to be exciting! 

We need to create a place where people ask the right questions, seek insights, and predict trends, to drive value and stay ahead of the competition.  To make this happen we’re creating a new culture, we’re shifting mindsets, we’re investing in our people by building capability across our business and we’re ensuring our new data and analytical tools are best in class. 

This role will support that journey by working within the Data Science team to build efficient productionised Data and ML pipelines, to support the business in data lead decision making.

We are looking for a hands-on expert to build, automate and maintain the data resource for Data Science and across the wider Customer Insight team. 

Who are we looking for?

RS Group needs a Lead Data Scientist with a track record of delivering successful data science solutions in a marketing environment. This is an exceptional opportunity for a seasoned professional to join and contribute to our expanding team, working closely with team members to foster their growth and enhance their capabilities.

The ideal candidate will have a wealth of experience and a demonstrated ability to deliver significant value through data insights and solutions. We're particularly interested in individuals who can not only deliver advanced solutions but also improve our data science processes and help scope out future projects. This role involves active engagement with stakeholders, articulating complex insights in a clear and compelling way that drives strategic decision-making.

As a Lead Data Scientist, you will have the opportunity to utilize your expertise in a pivotal role, leveraging our rapidly growing datasets to help transition RS Group towards a more personalized omnichannel experience. You will be instrumental in utilizing the wealth of new data to inform decisions, develop models, and create advanced, personalized marketing strategies.

This role demands not only technical proficiency but also leadership and strong communication skills. The ideal candidate will be a mentor and a guide, someone capable of facilitating a collaborative team environment and fostering a culture of excellence. If you're passionate about harnessing data to drive business strategy, and keen to make a meaningful impact while fostering the growth of a data science team, this senior role is for you.

We’ve been on an incredible journey, but the best is yet to come; are you ready to join us?

What you will be doing:  

• Leverage your extensive expertise in statistical analysis and machine learning techniques to extract and interpret valuable insights from complex, high-volume datasets. Develop strategies to improve data quality and utilization.
• Utilize and advocate for the use of advanced analytical techniques in building predictive and prescriptive models that drive significant business impact.
• Facilitate and guide cross-functional collaborations to define project objectives, design data-driven strategies, and lead the successful execution of high-impact outcomes. Mentor junior team members through these collaborations.
• Design, implement, and supervise the deployment of advanced algorithms and predictive models to optimize business performance and enhance decision-making processes. Evaluate model performance and provide strategic recommendations for improvement.
• Work closely with Data Engineers to investigate, cleanse, and transform data from various sources to create optimal features for models. Guide the team in the application of best practices for data exploration and transformation.
• Communicate and present complex data findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders in a compelling and understandable manner. Act as a key point of contact for data science within the organization, leading the conversation around the value and implications of data insights.

What we are looking for from you:

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Extensive experience and deep understanding of Python, including best practices for writing unit tests, building packages, and writing reusable/maintainable code.
• Proven experience building sophisticated supervised and unsupervised models in senior professional roles. Comprehensive knowledge of standard industry libraries (pandas, sklearn, keras etc) is essential.
• Substantial experience in applying advanced statistical modelling, machine learning, and data mining techniques, with a proven track record of leveraging these skills to drive business value.
• Exceptional problem-solving abilities, strategic thinking, and commercial awareness.
• Outstanding communication and presentation skills, with a demonstrated ability to convey complex ideas in a clear, concise, and compelling manner to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated leadership and mentorship skills, with a track record of guiding and developing junior team members. Proven ability to drive collaboration and foster a productive team environment.

Who are we?

RS Group is a global omni-channel solutions partner for industrial customers and suppliers. Our business has operations in three geographical regions – the Americas, EMEA and APAC, supported by global organisations for supply chain, corporate functions, marketing, and product & supplier management.

Our market today is large, fragmented, local in nature and digitally immature. Only a few international distributors serve it, with many regional and local providers, who largely trade offline. Currently we estimate the global market value to be c.£400bn, with our global market share <1%. We stock over 2,500 supplier brands, 500k products and 63% of our sales are digital.

We are going through a period of change, as part of our Destination 2025 strategy, which positions us as becoming first choice for customer, suppliers, people, and communities. Our strategic priorities are:

• Best customer and supplier experience
• High-performance team
• Operational excellence
• Innovation
• Reinvestment to accelerate growth

Benefits

At RS, as well as the usual employee benefits that you’d expect from a FTSE listed company which include annual performance bonus, private healthcare, and generous holiday entitlement, in the UK&I, we’ve just introduced a number of new Family Friendly Policies including:

- Help for people to take control of ongoing Health conditions such as diabetes or asthma with £500 a year available for monitoring & consultation
- Support for Neurodiverse colleagues and families with neurodiverse members with needs assessment, diagnosis and post diagnostic support for autism spectrum, ADHD and Tourette’s syndrome
- Support for Women at different life stages from streamlined fertility support through to diagnosis and monitoring of both endometriosis and menopause
- Helping our LGBTQ+ community through enhanced coverage for trans colleagues, including voice coaching, facial surgery and gender confirmation surgery

Additions to Fertility coverage including IVF for lesbian couples and information/support around surrogacy and adoption for all

We are RS Group.

Our Vision is to be first choice for all our stakeholders, and we know that starts with our people. At RS we want everyone to show up to work as themselves and know that they will be supported and encouraged to develop and grow. We want work to be a place that excites and empowers, a place where you can be passionate and challenge people to think differently. 

We want to hire the best talent, people who share our values and understand that when we act with respect and humility, we can do great things.  That’s why we’ve put our purpose at the heart of our organisation, we want to make amazing happen for a better world. We empower our people to make a difference, innovate to make more possible and deliver to make it happen.

Are you ready to explore the possibilities?