Head of data science jobs in Bristol

Principal Data Scientist

Remote (UK-based) | Full-time - £104,732 + benefits (including 4.5-day week and 11% employer pension)

Do your best work, for the right reasons.

We're looking for a Principal Data Scientist who can design, build, and champion advanced data science solutions that drive better decisions across Oak.

Oak is a fully remote, mission-driven organisation offering high levels of flexibility, autonomy, and purpose. We're a national not-for-profit working in partnership with teachers to create high-quality, sequenced curriculum and lesson resources for pupils across all subjects and age groups.

Our culture has been independently recognised through:

• Flexa verified (93% overall score, including 95% for working hours and 97% for role modelling)

• Escape the City's Top 1% Employers – based on anonymous colleague reviews of culture, development, and impact

• Investors in People Gold - through external accreditation and colleague feedback

��About the Role

You'll own the continuous improvement of our data science processes and systems: leading the design and deployment of predictive models and NLP applications at scale, setting responsible AI and data governance standards, and translating complex insights into compelling recommendations for senior leaders and cross-functional squads. You'll maintain specialist expertise across machine learning, and statistical analysis, and be a trusted authority—both within Oak and across the education sector.

You'll work closely with our Head of Data and Director of Engineering, contribute to organisational strategy, and partner with EdTech sector leaders, government bodies, and data analytics providers on initiatives that matter. The work is technically rigorous, high-impact, and grounded in a mission to make evidence-informed decision-making the norm in education.

��What You’ll Be Doing:

• Responsible for the continuous improvement across multiple data science processes, systems, vision and strategy.

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced data science solutions, including predictive models and NLP applications, at scale.

• Design and implement responsible AI, data governance, and privacy standards across Oak's data science practice.

• Champion the role of data science in supporting Oak's mission, ensuring evidence-informed decision-making at strategic and operational levels by translating data science insights into product and business decisions.

• Maintain specialist expertise in data science and be an authority across Oak and more widely across the sector.

• As a member of the Oak Team, you may contribute to the strategy, planning and model the culture of the organisation.

• Work in cross-functional and product-oriented squads, translating complex statistical concepts for non-technical colleagues and presenting findings compellingly to senior leaders.

• Deputise for the Head of Data and take on other general responsibilities as required.

�� What we’re looking for

• 5+ years' experience holding responsibility for the continuous improvement of data science processes and systems, including designing and delivering data science products that create measurable organisational value.

• Extensive knowledge of statistical analysis, machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, with the ability to select and apply appropriate methods to complex problems.

• A track record of identifying and addressing ethical and privacy considerations in data science, including responsible AI, bias detection, and compliance frameworks.

• Proven experience scoping, designing, and deploying advanced data science solutions (predictive models, NLP applications) at scale, from conception through to production.

• Proven ability to translate complex statistical concepts for non-technical audiences and present findings compellingly to senior leaders and cross-functional squads.

• Experience working in cross-functional, product-oriented environments and influencing strategic and operational decisions through data science insight.

• A good understanding of education policy, the UK education system, and EdTech sector challenges (desirable, not essential).

The successful candidate will have a desire to contribute across all areas to ensure Oak is successful. You will be comfortable working at pace, with a range of digital systems (including proprietary ones as required), and you will continuously look at ways that the team can keep getting better. You will be excellent at working as part of a remote team, building relationships and managing your time effectively.

�� Our Benefits

• 25 days annual leave, plus one extra day for each year of service (up to 28)

• Additional Oak closure days over Christmas/New Year

• 11% employer pension contribution (with no minimum employee contribution, which can be varied as you choose). Please note this is a workplace pension rather than the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

• A 36-hour working week, with half-days on Fridays or every other Friday off.

• Fully remote working — we’ll support your home set-up and offer coworking options if preferred

• Twice-yearly in-person whole Oak offsites to collaborate, connect, and have fun (with other occasional team events in person)

• A culture that genuinely supports flexibility, autonomy, and trust

�� Inclusion and Belonging

We believe diverse teams build better products. We warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly those who are underrepresented in the tech and education sectors. 

If you're from an underrepresented group, there's a good chance you're discounting yourself before you've even started. That's more common than you'd think, and it means we may miss out on brilliant people. If you're excited by this role but don't meet every requirement, please apply anyway.

We use the Applied platform to help reduce bias in our hiring process. Answers are anonymised and reviewed by a panel of humans.

�� Key Info

• Location: Remote, but you must be based in the UK with the legal right to work here

• Sponsorship: Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time

• Closing date: We’ll be reviewing applications as they come in and may close the role early

If this sounds like the kind of role and team where you could do your life’s best work, we’d love to hear from you.

Next steps

You'll answer a few admin questions followed by some questions about your day-to-day work. Your answers will go through our sift process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised, and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers (real humans), so it's your thinking that gets assessed, not your CV.

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you to the next stage, which will consist of a remote Zoom interview.

We love giving feedback, so at the end of the application process, we'll share our assessment of your performance.

Interview dates: week beginning 3rd August 2026.

If this sounds like somewhere you could do your life's best work, we'd love to hear from you.

We're getting strong responses to our roles and we may close applications early. If you're interested, don't leave it too long.

We are an equal opportunity employer.

We are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

Shape the future of technology. Transform the future of young people.

At The King's Trust, technology is more than an enabler, it's how we reach more young people, deliver life-changing services and create lasting impact.

We're looking for an experienced Lead Architect to define and drive our technology vision, ensuring our systems, data and platforms support our ambitious strategy for years to come.

This is a pivotal leadership role where you'll own the Trust's solution architecture, influence technology strategy and lead the evolution of our enterprise landscape. Working with senior stakeholders across the organisation, you'll shape multi-year roadmaps, champion architectural best practice and ensure every technology decision delivers real value to our colleagues and the young people we support.

In this role, you'll:

• Lead the Trust's technology architecture strategy, driving scalable, secure and future-ready solutions.
• Shape multi-year technology roadmaps across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform, data, integration and emerging technologies including AI.
• Influence senior leaders and provide architectural governance to ensure technology investments align with organisational priorities.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team of Service Owners and Senior Business Analysts, fostering collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.

We're looking for an inspiring architecture leader with experience designing complex enterprise solutions, influencing senior stakeholders and translating strategic goals into practical technology outcomes.

If you're passionate about modern architecture, collaborative leadership and using technology to make a genuine difference, we'd love to hear from you.

Thank you for your interest in joining the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV), the UK’s leading professional body for health visiting.

This is a rare and exciting opportunity to join a growing, forward-looking organisation at a pivotal time. With a strong and expanding membership, iHV is working to strengthen the health visiting workforce and shape the future of child and family health across the UK.

As Policy Manager, you will play a key role in influencing national policy across priority areas including early years, prevention, public health, child protection and workforce. Your work will directly support iHV’s mission to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities for babies, children, families and communities and spread excellence in health visiting.

Working closely with our clinical team, members and partners, you will develop evidence-based policy positions and help ensure frontline expertise informs decision-making at the highest levels.

You will be joining a collaborative, passionate team in a fast-paced environment where no two days are the same – and where your work will make a real and lasting difference. For full information, please view our recruitment pack. 

Key responsibilities:

• Lead the co-development of evidence-based policy positions with iHV’s clinical team, members and partners.
• Monitor policy developments and identify opportunities to influence change.
• Produce high-quality briefings, consultation responses and reports.
• Build relationships with stakeholders across government, charities and the health sector.
• Gather, synthesise and apply frontline insight to inform policy development – including the production of iHV’s high-profile ‘State of Health Visiting’ survey and report.
• Work closely with the Systems and Digital Manager, applying digital and data expertise to leverage digital tools and emerging technologies (including AI) to strengthen evidence-gathering, inform policy development, and improve organisational effectiveness.
• Support delivery of policy elements of iHV projects and organisational priorities.
• Represent iHV at meetings and contribute to sector discussions.

About you:

We are looking for the following essential skills and experience:

• Strong understanding of UK policy-making processes and child and family health/ early years policy – ideally informed by experience working within or closely with government or public sector organisations.
• Exceptional writing skills, with a proven ability to produce authoritative, high impact briefings, reports and policy documents that are clear, persuasive and tailored to diverse audiences.
• Highly developed analytical skills, with the ability to interpret complex information and evidence from multiple sources and translate this into clear, practical and actionable policy recommendations.
• Ability to collate, synthesise and critically assess diverse sources of insight, including frontline practitioner perspectives, quantitative and qualitative data, to inform robust policy development.
• Experience developing or contributing to evidence-based policy outputs (e.g. briefings, reports, consultation responses).
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, with the ability to work effectively and collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders and partners.
• Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities, coordinate inputs and deliver work to deadlines.
• Confident verbal communication skills, with the ability to contribute effectively to meetings, events and external discussions, presenting complex ideas clearly.