Data Science Manager

The core of this role is to help the Partnership make insight-driven, better informed, customer-centric decisions specifically in our Commercial, Retail and Supply Chain domains.

In order to do this, you will need to work closely with teams across these domains in the Partnership, getting close to their world, hearing their problems and spotting the opportunities to make improvements. You will use your analytical mindset and knowledge of the customer to improve the speed and quality of decision making.

A Data Scientist focused on the Commercial, Retail and Supply Chain domains would typically solve problems such as Demand Forecasting, Price Optimisation and a range of other Constrained Optimisation tasks such as optimising markdowns to reduce food waste or setting the optimal safety stock in Distribution Centres. This role sits within a central Data Science team that covers John Lewis, Waitrose and John Lewis Money.

We are looking for someone who is passionate about solving these types of business problems across a broad spectrum of techniques that extend far and wide across consumer facing touchpoints that drive real impact in day to day situations. The successful applicant will play a hands-on role in shaping, building and deploying business solutions alongside stakeholders and other Data Scientists and ML Engineers.

At a glance

Hybrid working: This is a hybrid working role, therefore your time will primarily be split between working from home and Bracknell  Head Office. However, there will also be an expectation to visit other locations as the need arises. 

Our team currently works from the office once a week to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings, but again the frequency is dependent on the business needs. 

Expected Salary - £62,000 - £85,000 (depending upon experience)

Contract type  - This position is a permanent role.
 

Key Responsibilities

You will be self-motivated and be able to work effectively together with a range of stakeholders to improve business decision making using data science methods. 

You will be accountable for our roadmap and deliverables within an assigned business domain within Commercial, Retail and Supply Chain. This will also mean managing the associated stakeholders and team members within that domain.

Day-to-day, you will: 

• Analyse and link complex data sets so that they can support actionable insight and recommendations. 
   

• Identify ideas and take ownership of opportunities to drive business impact with data science. 
   

• Transform data and build models to optimise customer experience, profit revenue generation, cost reduction and other business outcomes. 
   

• Be passionate about statistics and machine learning, and AI. Be able to convey a thorough understanding of the benefits and use cases of these across the business to a variety of audiences. 
   

• Design and develop end-to-end solutions to business problems, from defining the problem, through solution development, to implementation and driving business adoption.
   

• Embrace agile working practices, set technical best practices, and actively invest in applying AI tools to enhance productivity and workflow efficiency.
   

• Partner with multidisciplinary agile teams—including Senior Data Scientists, ML Engineers, Analysts, and Architects—to drive technical product delivery.

Internally this role is known as Insight Manager, Data Science.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Hands-on Expertise: Proficient in data science, with coding experience in Python and SQL, and the ability to mentor others.
   

• Technical Proficiency:  Experience with ML Ops (Vertex AI), Git version control and software engineering best practices whilst using AI effectively to augment these best practices.
   

• Problem-Solving and Innovation:  A passion for tackling business challenges and applying new data science techniques.
   

• Communication and Collaboration:  Excellent communication skills, experience working in cross-functional teams, and the ability to build data science roadmaps with stakeholders.
   

• Business Acumen:  Adept at working with stakeholders to identify and prioritise key problems, and optimise against KPIs to achieve their objectives.
   

• AI & Learning Mindset: Passion for continuous learning, with a desire to apply AI tools effectively to optimise day-to-day work processes.
   

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Work experience within the Retail or Grocery sectors.

• Hands-on experience with Agile methodologies in multidisciplinary product teams.

• Experience applying software engineering best practices (e.g., modern tech stack usage like Snowflake, DBT, GitLab).

• Experience working with Cloud technologies (specifically Google Cloud Platform)

• Previous people management experience.

Next Steps

• The application form consists of a CV upload, followed by application questions. Please save the application questions to a document file (such as Google Docs, Word or Notepad) before entering on Workday.

• Once you've submitted an application the next steps of the process, if successful, will include a 1st stage virtual interview followed by a more detailed Stage 2 Interview.
   

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We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.  

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application please contact us as soon as possible.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.