Senior Data Scientist
Location: Leeds
Closing Date: 31/5/2026
Interviews will take place in person in Leeds on 16th and 17th June.
Grade: SEO
Salary: National - £42,914 to £46,182 (which may include an allowance of up to £9424)
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working
Contract Type: Permanent
Number of vacancies: 2
Vacancy number: 17762
The Role
Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.
We’re recruiting for Senior Data Scientists here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Data Scientist team.
This role aligns against Data Scientist from the Government Digital and Data Framework.
These roles sit within Justice Data which exists to ensure that high quality data, and algorithms and tools built on that data, are available, trusted, and effectively used to improve decision making across the justice system.
The Data Science community at MoJ has around 80 members of staff providing data science support across a diverse and exciting agenda.
We have a track record of delivering services to front line staff using wide ranging data science techniques, including the award‑winning safety diagnostic tool, the public‑facing Criminal justice system (CJS) delivery data dashboard, and Splink. Our projects span machine learning, natural language processing, large language models, traditional statistics, and operational research techniques.
Senior Data Scientist – Probation Data Science & AI
You will be a member of a multidisciplinary product team - working alongside designers, researchers and developers - to embed data science solutions into the Digital tools used by frontline Probation staff. You will take ideas from concept to live service helping Probation staff save time and improve operational effectiveness. Supported by a Lead Data Scientist you’ll also help grow team capability by developing junior data scientists.
Senior Data Scientist – Risk Assessment Data Science & AI
The main programme of work entails developing, monitoring and supporting the suite of Actuarial Risk Assessment Instruments (ARAIs), which estimate the probability of various types of reoffending. Current ARAI projects range from analysing the prediction of Violence Against Women and Girls to improving the operational understanding of models using new explainability techniques. As a member of the team, you would help streamline the process for creating, updating and deploying these products, work with Digital and other leads to bring in new data sources, address HMPPS requirements such as modelling demand for new offender services and oversee other team projects to improve our understanding of offender risk using predictive modelling.
Benefits
* A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
* 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
* Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
* Future‑proof work with documentation, model monitoring, and re‑assessment schedules.
* Work collaboratively with other data scientists using version control and proportionate dev‑ops practices.
* Communicate results and possibilities to a variety of stakeholders.
* Help the team keep up to date with the wider data science landscape and emerging technologies.
* Contribute to the MoJ Data Science Community making it an inclusive and vibrant place to work.
* Contribute to the strategy and direction of technical projects.
* Coach junior data scientists, improving their technical skills and independence.
* Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
* A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best‑in‑class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e‑learning platforms.
* Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
Key Responsibilities
* Apply appropriate data science tools to build products to robust standards.
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