Head Of Data Science And Products

Job purpose and background

CDP is looking for an experienced data science team leader who is passionate about the power of data to solve environmental issues. You would Build & Lead a growing global team of data scientists and data professionals to deliver data driven decision making for our clients and stakeholders.

Our cleaned and modelled data is used for Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) analysis by the financial services industry, international policy support, and the identification of high impact companies which will be served with world class data products. The ideal candidate will educate, plan & evangelise how the 4^th industrial revolution of AI can influence climate action.

About CDP's Data team:

The Data Team’s primary remit is to improve the usability of the climate change, water, forests and cities data disclosed to CDP through robust and transparent methods. The team will create sustainable data pipelines for data quality monitoring, data cleaning, reporting and data science modelling. Harmonised data collected from external sources will enrich the data assets’ value and enhance accessibility for CDP’s stakeholders. The team will produce value-adding insight delivering it through data products that help internal and external stakeholders to better understand the quantitative and qualitative results of their actions. This in turn helps stakeholders to make data-led decisions and optimise for all constraints. Through every stage the data assets are governed by the industry practice standards in a robust and transparent manner.

Key responsibilities include:

• Help develop the vision and strategy for the Data Science portfolio in relation to industry evolution and stakeholder environment value opportunities
• Stay up-to-date with state-of-the-art research and emerging market trends from which to
• implement new products and offerings
• Lead the development of end-to-end machine learning prototypes and full products that can scale to run in a production environment.
• Design and lead the MLOps team and practices to ensure long term success and stability of the data science products.
• Design and run experiments to measure and continuously improve algorithmic performance
• Contribute meaningful improvements to existing models through high-quality research and
• work with other departments in a lean agile manner
• Exemplify a pragmatic mindset and maintain focus on delivery, making effective trade-off
• decisions as needed
• Build and develop an outstanding data science team
• Coach and mentor team members.
• Bring a systematic, disciplined and analytical approach to problem solving with demonstrable verbal and written communications skills.
• Plan and co-ordinate team activities and take responsibility for ensuring the quality of outputs.
• Undertake the quality assurance of new & developed data structures and associated components (entity descriptions, relationship descriptions, attribute definitions).
• Plan and schedule own work within set targets and timeframes.

Required skills and experience:

• Experience in ML Ops & experience in alignment of Crisp DM with scrum frameworks
• Successful delivery of data science products/projects using Agile, Scrum,
• Using tools from Lean framework to reduce the value creation cycle from idea to prototype to MVP to MSSP.
• Very strong academic performance, ideally a Masters with a highly quantitative degree with research project.
• Expert in Python and or R as well as in Open Source frameworks and packages.
• Experience in building individual development roadmaps for each team member, identifying external resource requirements and negotiating resourcing always striving for the most cost-effective way.
• Highly cost conscious on all aspects of decision making both for BAU implementation decisions and for forward looking planning
• Motivated to educate, mentor and grow taking every opportunity to coach others on a formal and informal basis.
• Strong stakeholder management and engagement skills
• Experience leading global teams
• Highly skilled in Analytical thinking/Problem Solving, Strategic Thinking, Quality Assurance & Control
• Deep theoretical understanding of statistical ML methods and extensive hands-on experience in crafting innovative algorithms to tackle real-life problem
• Solid interpersonal and communication skills, including ability to convey complex topics to a broad audience

Desired skills and experience (optional)

• PhD and/or publications in international scientific conferences a strong plus
• Experience of verification and assurance practices;
• Exposure in Climate Change data legislation, practices and stakeholders.
• Experience in Environmental related industries i.e Water, Energy, Forestry related.

This is a full-time, fixed-term contract role for up to 24 months. It is based at CDP’s London office reporting to the Global Director, Data & Insight.

Salary and benefits: Level 3 role, 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, generous non-contributory pension provision, annual discretionary bonus (depending on company performance), Employee Assistance Program, life assurance, Training and development, Flexible working opportunities and other benefits.

Interested applicants must be eligible to work legally in the United Kingdom.

Before you apply

We’ll only use the information you provide to process your application. For more details on how we use your information, see our applicants privacy notice. By emailing us your CV and covering letter, you are permitting CDP to use the information you have provided for recruitment purposes.

To apply please email your CV and a covering letter setting out how you meet the required skills and experience or key responsibilities, which should be no more than two pages, to [email protected] with ‘DI-4.0 Head of Data Science & Products, Firstname Surname’ in the subject. The deadline is 6 PM GMT on April 9.