Head of Data Science

Who we are

Since 1843, The Economist Group has championed independence, excellence and openness, helping people understand and tackle the critical challenges shaping the world. Today, we are building on that legacy as a global media and information-services company powered by digital innovation, analytical rigour and evidence-based insight.

Across our three businesses - The Economist, Economist Enterprise and Economist Education - we deliver trusted analysis and insights to individuals and organisations in more than 170 countries. United by a shared purpose to drive progress, we empower decision-makers to make sense of change and chart a course through an increasingly complex world.

As a colleague, you will be part of a culture that values ideas, encourages ownership and holds itself to high standards. We invest in people who are curious, thoughtful and adaptable, whether they are launching new products, reporting on global events or harnessing emerging technologies such as AI to improve how we work. Here, fresh thinking is taken seriously, ambition is matched by integrity, and great work is recognised. Working across disciplines, geographies and perspectives, we are united by a commitment to innovation, excellence and creating meaningful impact.

Role Title: Head of Data Science

Location: UK-based (with support from India-based teams)

Reports to: VP Insights & Decision Science 

Team: 6 Data Scientists (split between Decision Science and Personalisation)

PURPOSE OF ROLE

The Head of Data Science is a high-impact leadership position responsible for building and leading a world-class "decision engine" team. As a key architect of our "AI-powered future," you will accelerate the transformation The Economist’s Data Science team from a service provider into a "trusted adviser" that delivers commercially transformative advice and world-class personalisation capabilities

You will be responsible for setting and raising the technical and operational standards of the team, fostering a culture of technical excellence and innovation. 

Your remit covers two critical pillars:

1. Decision Science: Building the "muscle" for causal inference and advanced forecasting to support high-stakes strategic decisions e.g. understanding the relationship between subscriber behaviour/engagement and retention/value, marketing and media optimisation, understanding the drivers of content performance, pricing and discounting strategy, customer lifetime value modeling, etc.
2. Personalisation: Rapidly maturing our recommendation and pricing engines to drive improvements in subscriber acquisition, engagement, retention and lifetime value metrics

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

Qualitative Measures:

• Culture of Excellence: Recognition as a "torch-bearer" for excellence who sets and consistently meets the highest standards in quality, pace, and expertise.
• Talent Development: Evidence of nurturing a high-performance team with a clear pipeline of talent and technical growth.
• Scaling & Reliability: Implementation, in collaboration with the Engineering team, of robust build, MLOps and architectural standards that enable rapid experimentation, build and deployment cycles and that ensure model reliability, observability, and reusability
• Trusted Adviser Status: The extent to which senior business and technical stakeholders proactively seek your team’s expertise for complex technical and strategic questions.

Quantitative Measures:

• Material Commercial Impact: Quantifiable and material net revenue growth and operational savings directly attributable to technical innovations (e.g., pricing models, personalization uplift).
• Model Performance & Velocity: Significant improvement in the speed of model development/deployment and the accuracy of causal models/diagnostics.
• Adoption & Engagement: High levels of integration and usage of data science products across the organization’s core workflows and experiences

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Team Leadership & Talent Nurturing: Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performance team of ~6 Data Scientists. You will be accountable for their technical growth and for maintaining a "T-shaped" culture that combines both broad and deep technical/business expertise.
• Technical Standards & MLOps: Own the technical architecture and MLOps lifecycle for data science. In collaboration with the Data Engineering and AI Platform teams, you will drive excellence and pace in the build, deployment, testing, and monitoring of models using Amazon Sagemaker [and occasionally Snowflake]
• Causal Inference & Decision Science: Lead the development of advanced causal models (e.g., Media Mix Modelling, retention drivers, and simulation models) to move the business from descriptive "what happened" to prescriptive ‘what next” and "what if" insights.
• Personalisation Strategy & Activation: Oversee the Personalisation Analysts in their close collaboration with Marketing and Product teams to identify and execute opportunities using our CDP and activation platforms (Salesforce, Airship, Blueconic and Amplitude).
• NLP & Generative AI Innovation: Leverage NLP and transformer architectures to enhance content tagging and use Generative AI to supercharge internal AIML workflows, including model testing and documentation.
• Stakeholder Consultancy: Act as a senior technical consultant to executive fora, translating complex technical findings into compelling, actionable narratives.
• Democratising AI & ML: Driving adoption of AI & ML techniques and tools in the wider Data, Research & Insight team and in the wider business

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Must-Have Experience & Expertise:

• Proven Leadership: A track record of building and raising standards within high-performance data science teams, with a demonstrable focus on talent development.
• Technical Innovation with ROI: A proven record of delivering technical innovations that have resulted in quantifiable and material commercial benefits.
• Curiosity with Purpose: A restless intellect that is constantly seeking to grow their skills and knowledge and, crucially, an operational and practical mindset that finds ways to apply that knowledge to deliver commercial benefits
• Decision Science & Causal Inference: Deep expertise in causal inference, forecasting, and simulation techniques used to support business decision-making and to develop commercial and product strategy 
• Personalised User Experiences & Journeys : Sustained track record of delivering performant and innovative AI & ML models that result in enhanced subscriber experience and commercial performance improvement through content recommendations, product recommendations, personalised pricing and customer journey orchestration
• Engineering Excellence: Strong experience in MLOps, model architecture, and delivering models at scale using AWS/Sagemaker.
• Modern AI Stack: Hands-on experience with NLP, neural networks, transformer architectures, causal inference and the application of Generative AI in the AIML lifecycle.
• Commercial Agency: An "owner's mindset" with the bravery to find and fix problems proactively and a focus on opportunity over risk.

Desirable Experience & Expertise:

• Subscription/Journalistic Context: Experience in a premium news or subscription-based environment, understanding the specific challenges of content-based engagement.
• Activation Platforms: Familiarity with activation via CDPs (e.g. Salesforce, Airship, Blueconic) and product analytics tools (e.g. Amplitude).

AI Transformation: Experience in evolving a traditional analytics function into an AI-forward team that leverages "full-stack" capabilities.

#LI-Hybrid

Working Arrangements

The majority of our roles operate on a hybrid working pattern, with 3+ days office attendance required. 

AI usage for your application

We are an innovative organisation that encourages the use of technology. We recognise that candidates may utilise AI tools to support with their job application process. However, it is essential that all information you provide truthfully and accurately reflects your own experience, skills, and qualifications.

What we offer

Our benefits package is designed to support your wellbeing, growth, and work-life balance. It includes a highly competitive pension or 401(k) plan, private health insurance, and 24/7 access to counselling and wellbeing resources through our Employee Assistance Program.

We also offer a range of lifestyle benefits, including our Work From Anywhere program, which allows you to work from any location where you have the legal right to do so for up to 25 days per year. In addition, we provide generous annual and parental leave, as well as dedicated days off for volunteering and even for moving home.

You will also be given free access to all The Economist content, including an online subscription, our range of apps, podcasts and more.