Senior Data Scientist

JOB TITLE: Senior Data Scientist

LOCATION(S): Manchester

HOURS:  Full time

WORKING PATTERN: Hybrid, 40% (or two days) in the above office location

About the opportunity

We have a great opportunity for a Senior Data Scientist to support developing next-generation agentic AI models!This role also involves traditional machine learning solutions that power critical business decisions. This role combines modern research with implementation, ensuring scalable, explainable, and robust AI systems across the organisation! You will design and implement next‑generation agentic AI and traditional ML that power critical decisions across the organisation!

The key activities in the role are:

• Architect agentic systems: multi‑step reasoning, autonomous decision‑making, and safe action flows.

• Operationalise LLM solutions: evaluation, fine‑tuning, and prompt strategies with measurable outcomes.

• Engineer APIs and containerised microservices for scalable ML; embed CI/CD, model versioning, and monitoring.

• Assure interpretability, fairness, and audit readiness; meet compliance standards within the field.

• Experiment using human‑feedback loops and A/B testing to iterate quickly and improve performance.

• Translate complex concepts into actionable insights that influence product roadmaps powered by advanced technology.

About us

If you think all banks are the same, you’d be wrong. We’re an innovative, fast-changing business that’s shaping finance as a force for good. A bank that’s empowering its people to innovate, explore possibilities and grow with purpose.

What you'll need

• Advanced proficiency in Python and SQL; hands‑on use of pandas, NumPy, scikit‑learn, PyTorch.

• Strong knowledge of supervised/unsupervised learning; experience in NLP, anomaly detection, classification.

• Experience across the full software development lifecycle, from experimentation through to deployment of containerised Machine Learning models to a live environment, using technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes and coding in Python.

• Exposure to some GCP cloud tooling (e.g. Vertex AI, BigQuery) and visualisation tools such as Looker, Tableau or PowerBI is highly desirable

• Experience with API development, containerisation, and microservice patterns.

• Familiarity with agentic architectures, multi‑step reasoning, and autonomous decision frameworks.

• Ability to integrate LLMs and reinforcement learning into production workflows.

• Expertise in interpretability and bias detection.

• Delivery of audit‑ready solutions aligned to governance and compliance.

• Practical experience with MLflow, Kubeflow, or similar MLOps frameworks; Git proficiency.

• Skill in converting complex technical detail into clear business insight.

Desirable skills:

• Work with Vertex AI Agent Builder, LangGraph, multi‑agent orchestration, or agent‑to‑agent protocols.

• Hands‑on LLM fine‑tuning, prompt engineering, and evaluation frameworks

• Design and analysis of A/B tests and other experimentation methods.

• Knowledge of data governance and model risk management in regulated environments.

• Experience with RLHF or similar approaches for continuous model improvement.

• Ability to spot opportunities for agentic AI innovation and shape product roadmaps.

About working for us

Our focus is to ensure we're inclusive every day, building an organisation that reflects modern society and celebrates diversity in all its forms.

We want our people to feel that they belong and can be their best, regardless of background, identity or culture.

We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer initiative.

And it’s why we especially welcome applications from under-represented groups.

We’re disability confident. So, if you’d like reasonable adjustments to be made to our recruitment processes, just let us know.

We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes:

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%

• An annual bonus award, subject to Group performance

• Share schemes including free shares

• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping

• 30 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top

• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

Want to do amazing work, that’s interesting and makes a difference to millions of people? Join our journey.