Lead Data Scientist - Optimisation (Contract | Inside IR35)

Location: London / Midlands (Hybrid + occasional European travel) Rate: £500 per day (Inside IR35) A leading consultancy is delivering a major analytics transformation programme for a global transportation organisation. They are looking for a Lead Data Scientist with deep optimisation expertise to drive high-impact decisioning solutions. This is not a generic ML role. The focus is on advanced optimisation modelling applied to real-world operational problems at scale .

The Role

You will take ownership of complex optimisation initiatives, working closely with business, product, and engineering teams to design and deploy production-grade models. Key responsibilities: Lead the design and implementation of optimisation models across multiple business domains Translate complex operational challenges into mathematical frameworks Build scalable, production-ready solutions end-to-end Collaborate with cross-functional teams to influence decision-making Communicate trade-offs and model outputs clearly to senior stakeholders Provide technical leadership and mentor other data scientists Ensure robustness, scalability, and performance of deployed models

What You'll Bring (Essential)

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