Job summary
- Main area
- Data Science
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 990-TDD-D&A-EC4001-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Any NHSE site
- Town
- National
- Salary
- £66,582 - £77,368 per annum (exclusive of London weighting)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 31/08/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Data Science Manager
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Our Organisation
We share the core values set out in the NHS Constitution, which all colleagues are expected to demonstrate.
We support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you and your colleagues. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement, whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern.
Job overview
The Senior Data Science Manager will provide senior delivery leadership for advanced analytics, machine learning and applied AI work within the AI Factory. The role will lead major workstreams or products end-to-end, shaping deliverable problem statements with stakeholders, agreeing scope and success measures, and ensuring solutions are reproducible, supportable and fit to scale across organisations where appropriate. The role will focus on production-facing data science and ML Engineering capability, ensuring work follows good engineering discipline, proportionate model governance, monitoring, AQA and responsible AI expectations.
Main duties of the job
The postholder will lead multidisciplinary delivery across analytics, engineering, product and operational partners. They will design, build and assure machine-learning, AI, forecasting and automation solutions, taking technical responsibility across stages of development and applying appropriate software development methods, tools and techniques. They will set standards for version control, testing, documentation and automation, ensure data products are reproducible and supportable, and manage risks, dependencies and assurance activity. They will also coach staff, support technical leadership, and strengthen adoption of modern, reusable approaches such as RAP and MLOps.
Working for our organisation
NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, and person specification in the attached Job Description. Please ensure your supporting statement includes demonstratable evidence and specific examples on how you meet the criteria for each of the key skills specified. This will be used in both the shortlisting and interview processes.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to Master’s degree level in a technical subject (such as Statistics, Mathematics, Physics or Computer Science) or equivalent specialist experience.
- Evidence of additional and continual professional development.
Skills
Essential criteria
- Design, implement, test, and improve machine learning architectures and systems.
- Take technical responsibility across all stages and iterations of development.
- Adopt and adapt appropriate software development methods, tools and techniques.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Working knowledge of data security, information governance and legislation relevant to health data science (for example, Data Protection Act, Caldicott Principles) and evidence of ensuring compliance within analytical data projects.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience in utilising modern programming languages used for data science (for example, Python, R) to deliver analytical data projects.
- Experience using modern cloud technologies (for example, AWS / Azure Databricks), including applying to deliver advanced analytical projects.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Jonathan Orritt
- Job title
- Chief AI Architect
- Email address
- [email protected]
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