Head of Data Science
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 31, 2026. First seen by Alion on May 27, 2026. Optima Partners scores A on the Alion truth index.
Optima Partners is a fast-growing professional services firm helping leading organisations transform customer engagement at the intersection of marketing, technology and data. As we scale from 100 to 300 people we’re growing our Advanced Data Practice team through the appointment of a Head of Data Science to drive both client impact and team growth
About the role
In this role you will shape and deliver the data science agenda ensuring machine learning and analytics solutions are not only technically robust but deliver real measurable business outcomes for clients. You will sit at the intersection of strategy delivery and leadership building a high performing team while helping clients unlock value from advanced data and decisioning.
What you will be doing
Lead and grow a multi-disciplinary data science team including data scientists and analysts
Define and embed a best practice operating model for scalable and commercially viable data science solutions
Provide technical oversight and delivery assurance across client projects
Support business development by shaping solutions contributing to proposals and engaging with clients
Partner with delivery teams and engagement managers to establish consistent ways of working and repeatable approaches
Drive adoption of machine learning solutions ensuring sustained client value
Build strong relationships with partners such as Databricks Pega and Adobe and contribute to client account growth
Line manage team members supporting performance development and wellbeing
Contribute to recruitment strategy and scaling the data science capability
What we are looking for
Proven experience leading data science teams ideally within a consulting or client facing environment
Strong expertise in machine learning advanced analytics and statistical modelling
Experience delivering data science solutions in commercial environments with measurable impact
Ability to translate complex business problems into data modelling and decisioning solutions
Strong understanding of modern data science tooling and ecosystems such as Python R SQL MLOps and Databricks
Commercial awareness with the ability to identify and shape high value use cases
Excellent stakeholder engagement skills including working with senior and C suite clients
About you
Strategic outcome focused and commercially minded
A natural leader coach and mentor who enjoys developing others
Collaborative and comfortable working across multi disciplinary teams
Pragmatic with a focus on delivery adoption and impact over theory
A strong communicator able to bridge technical and business stakeholders
Passionate about building a high performing people first data science culture
Why join Optima
At Optima Partners we combine customer strategy design and advanced data science to help leading brands unlock real business value. You will play a key role in shaping our data science capability and growth working with major UK and global clients across financial services telecoms energy and life sciences.
This is an opportunity to join a fast growing consultancy influence our leadership team and build a data science function that sets the standard for delivery and innovation.
What we offer
Competitive salary plus 15% discretionary bonus
Hybrid working with regular office presence
Private medical insurance life and income protection
Pension scheme
Access to a wide range of employee perks
Continuous learning training and career development
Opportunity to shape and grow a high impact data science practice