Senior Data Scientist | S4 | Chief Data & AI Office | Milton Keynes

Overview

In this Senior Data Scientist role, you will lead customer-facing AI initiatives within Santander UK, focusing on SanTalk across contact centres and digital channels. You will combine technical leadership with deep knowledge of customer journeys and operational performance to drive value. You’ll own the UK vision and rollout of SanTalk, coordinating with Group teams and partners in a regulated environment. This role offers meaningful impact through scalable AI solutions that enhance customer experience and business outcomes.

Pay / Benefits

• 30 days’ holiday (increases to 31)
• car allowance per year
• private medical insurance
• death-in-service and income protection
• share plans
• wellbeing programmes

Responsibilities

• Act as the UK Product Owner for SanTalk: define vision, strategy, roadmap and backlog for customer-facing AI solutions across channels
• Translate UK business priorities and user feedback into prioritised AI use cases, requirements, acceptance criteria and delivery plans
• Represent Santander UK in Group product forums to influence the SanTalk roadmap and feature proposals
• Own end-to-end delivery, UK rollout and ongoing operation of SanTalk solutions, including testing, deployment and BAU transition
• Provide technical direction to Data Scientists, Engineers, MLOps and Product Owners to ensure scalable, secure and production-ready solutions
• Monitor deployed solutions performance, define success metrics and use experimentation and benefits tracking to optimise outcomes
• Manage delivery priorities, governance, dependencies and risks within a regulated environment with embedded responsible AI and model governance
• Build alignment across senior stakeholders (business, operations, technology, risk) and report progress, risks and decisions with practical recommendations

Key requirements

• 6-8 years of experience in data science, applied AI or advanced analytics, including leadership of complex AI solutions from concept to production
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Engineering or a related field, or equivalent work experience with professional certification/licences
• English language proficiency; Spanish or cross-border experience preferred
• Strong knowledge of machine learning, natural language processing, generative AI, experimentation, statistical analysis and model evaluation
• Experience owning a digital, data or AI product lifecycle from strategy to live-service optimisation
• Experience designing or delivering conversational AI or customer-facing AI solutions; Sierra experience or equivalent enterprise platform preferred
• Strong understanding of contact-centre and digitally assisted channel operations, UK regulations and production AI monitoring

• Technical leadership and solution walkthroughs
• Multitasking and concise reporting of progress, risks, dependencies
• Vision shaping, business case challenges, and value tracking
• Machine learning and NLP expertise
• Generative AI and experimentation
• Production monitoring, value measurement and model governance

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