Lead Data Scientist

About Zego

At Zego, we understand that traditional motor insurance holds good drivers back. It's too complicated, too expensive, and it doesn't reflect how well you actually drive. Since 2016, we have been on a mission to change that by offering the lowest priced insurance for good drivers.

From van drivers and gig workers to everyday car drivers, our customers are the driving force behind everything we do. We've sold tens of millions of policies and raised over $200 million in funding. And we’re only just getting started.

About the team

We don’t build pricing models, we build the driving intelligence that feeds them. Our mission is to drive safer roads and fairer insurance through data.

The Telematics team transforms raw phone sensor data into meaningful insights about how people drive. Using advanced signal processing and machine learning, we process high-frequency data to extract behavioural signals that power our understanding of driving quality, context, and risk.

About the Role

As a Lead Data Scientist, you’ll drive the technical direction of our behavioural modelling work. You’ll lead the development of telematics features from idea to production, including exploratory analysis, signal design, risk evaluation, and scalable deployment.

This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll design solutions, mentor other scientists, influence architecture across systems, and guide decision-making in uncertain or complex contexts.

We’re looking for an applied scientist - someone who thrives on getting things into production, values strong engineering, and has opinions on building reliable, scalable systems.

What you will be doing

• Drive the development of telematics features from mobile sensor data, including project design, modelling, validation, and deployment.

• Conduct deep dives into driving signals, develop hypotheses, and evaluate their predictive power for risk.
• Design technical solutions with clear trade-offs around performance, scalability, and maintainability.

• Collaborate closely with data engineers, software engineers, mobile developers, and PMs to deliver production-grade features.

• Mentor data scientists, set high standards for technical quality, and promote knowledge sharing and learning.

• Own delivery of large, complex projects, breaking them into milestones, planning collaboratively, and unblocking teams.

• Contribute to Request For Comments (RFCs), design reviews, and technical discussions and initiatives with high technical ambiguity.

• Ensure that our models and features are observable, tested, and continuously improving.

• Help shape the team roadmap and longer-term strategy for behavioural signal development.

About You

• MSc or equivalent industry experience in a relevant field (e.g. Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Statistics). A PhD is welcome but not required.

• Experience delivering production-grade data science or engineering solutions, including design, implementation, and deployment

• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL, with practical experience in designing and implementing efficient data pipelines, including performance tuning and optimization.

• Proven ability to apply machine learning techniques to real-world problems. Familiarity with core libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, SciPy, and Polars is expected.

• Experience with digital signal processing, mobile sensor physics, or behavioural signal design.

• Proven track record of designing and delivering scalable data products, driving cross-functional initiatives, and influencing architectural decisions.

• Strong communicator, skilled at translating between technical and non-technical audiences, and building alignment.

• A growth mindset: open to feedback, committed to continuous learning, and eager to help others develop.

Nice to Have

• Experience leading applied ML projects end-to-end, with a focus on code quality, runtime efficiency, and measurable impact.

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (e.g. AWS), containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes), and orchestration tools.

• Experience mentoring and coaching other data scientists and setting technical direction in high-impact domains.

• Background in mobility, insurance, user behaviour modelling, or driver risk analytics.
  

What’s it like to work at Zego?

Joining Zego is a career-defining move. People go further here, reaching their full potential to achieve extraordinary things.

We're spread throughout the UK and Europe, and united by our drive to get things done. We're proud of our company and our culture - a friendly and inclusive space where we can lift each other up and celebrate our wins every day.

Together, we're setting the bar higher, delivering exceptional work that makes a difference.

Our people are the most important part of our story, and everyone here plays a role. There's loads of room to learn and grow, and you'll get the freedom to steer your career wherever you want.

You'll work alongside a talented group who embrace each other's differences and aren't afraid of a challenge. We recognise our achievements, learn from our mistakes, and help each other to be the best we can be. Together, we're making insurance matter

How we work

We believe that teams work better when they have time to collaborate and space to get things done. We call it Zego Hybrid. While some of our team choose to come into our central London office once a week, we’re flexible - some people prefer being in once a month or even quarterly. It’s all about finding the right balance between collaborative face time and focused home-working, so we can achieve great results while maintaining a healthy work-life balance

Our approach to AI

We believe in the power of AI to meaningfully improve how we work - helping us move faster, think differently, and focus on what matters most. At Zego, we encourage people to stay curious and intentional about how AI is leveraged in their work and teams to drive practical impact every day. This is your chance to do the most meaningful work of your career - and we'll provide you with the tools, support, and freedom to do it well

Benefits

We reward our people well. Join us and you'll get a market-competitive salary, private medical insurance, company share options, generous holiday allowance, and a whole lot of wellbeing benefits. We also offer an annual flexible hybrid working contribution, which you can use to support with your travel to the office or towards your own personal development. And that's just for starters!

There's more to Zego than just a job - Check out our blog for insights, stories, and more.

We're an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status.