Senior Data Scientist

Job Title: Senior Data Scientist

Location: Bexhill/Leicester/London– Hybrid 

Welcome to Hastings Direct 

We’re a digital insurance provider with ambitious plans to become the best and biggest in the UK market. We’ve made huge investments in our pricing and data capabilities over the past few years, along with nurturing our 4Cs culture. 

We provide insurance for over four million customers, but we know there’s even bigger opportunity out there - our Pricing, Data and Analytics community value curiosity, collaboration and constructive challenge. 

We are always looking for new ideas and diverse perspectives to question established thinking and drive meaningful change. Great pricing is built on trust, innovation and precision, so our aim is to ensure customers receive a fair and accurate price based on their individual risk, supporting fair outcomes, while delivering sustainable and profitable growth for our company. 

Pricing is more than just a number - it’s a strategic capability. At the heart of Hastings is deep risk insight - continually improving how we assess, segment and price risk through data and analytics. 

What we are looking for:

We are Looking for an experienced Data Scientist that wants to break free of the normal and develop real innovation to the Insurance Industry!

The Data Scientist will assist in the identification and creation of cutting-edge data assets and predictive models that feed into Hastings’ market-leading pricing activities. You will also be asked to use these new models and data assets to develop innovative pricing solutions.

This role is within our Retail Pricing team with a team comprising Data Scientists/Modellers as well as Analysts all working to deliver our market leading pricing strategies.

Key Responsibilities

• Building ML and GLM models for deployment into live pricing, including feature engineering and trialling new modelling approaches.

• Build a deep understanding of our price optimisation lifetime value function and contribute to its development.

• Develop new experimental pricing approaches, exploring new optimisation approaches, model structures, and automated learning.

• Work hand in hand with ML ops and engineering functions to deploy and test new approaches.

Key Skills & Experience

Essential 

• Track record of building, validating, and maintaining pricing models (e.g. GLMs, GAMs, tree‑based models).

• Experience in developing new pricing initiatives to make use of new models or data items, challenging the established approaches.

• Experience in liaising with multiple stakeholders to effectively frame problems and  building solutions with effective commercial outcomes.

• Proficiency in Python, SQL, Azure ML, Git, Azure Cloud Services

• Strong communication skills. 

• Ability to work cross-functionally with Data Engineers, Data Scientists and Pricing Analysts. 

• Keen interest in emerging ML techniques and their commercial value. 

Desirable 

• Insurance industry experience.

• ML Ops experience.

• GitHub as a code collaboration tool. 

• Experience in line management.

Personal Attributes 

• Highly technically competent mixed with broader business understanding.

• Natural problem solver who loves building creative solutions to complex real-world challenges. 

• Ability to work independently or collaboratively as part of a team to deliver solutions to a well-defined set of requirements. 

• Dynamic, flexible and delivery-focused work ethic required to adapt to a fast-paced environment

Interview Process:  

Recruiter screening call 

1st Round – Intro call with Hiring manager 

2nd Round – Case study round 

What we will give you:  

Join us and you’ll find a different way of doing things. We call it the 4Cs. We focus on getting it right for our colleagues, customers, company and community. As one of our colleagues, you’ll be helping to drive our growth, so in return, we’ll give you all the support, training and development you need. Not to mention plenty of recognition and rewards, and the scope to voice your ideas and put them into practice.

As a Disability Confident employer, we’re committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are fully inclusive – what this means to you is if you’re applying for a job with us, you’ll have fair access to support and adjustments throughout your recruitment journey. We also welcome applications through the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS).For more information on the DCS, please visit our inclusive business page on our careers website

Benefits: in addition to a competitive salary and £5k car allowance you will also receive…

Flexible working – we champion a flexible hybrid working approach – please speak to your recruiter to discuss in more detail

Competitive bonus scheme - all colleagues are eligible for our annual 4Cs performance bonus

Physical wellbeing – as a Band 4 colleague, Hastings pay for you to receive private medical Insurance (also known as PMI). This gives you flexibility and convenience to see a specialist or consultant and allows you to decide when and where you will be seen

Financial wellbeing – as well as providing you with 4x your salary with our life assurance cover, income protection at no extra cost, and matched pension contributions up to 10%, we are proud to provide you with an award winning package which includes – discounts, cashback, free independent mortgage advice and free access to financial wellbeing support

Mental wellbeing programme – we have the thrive mental health app, our colleague assistance programme available 24/7, our own in-house mental health first aiders, support groups and a dedicated team to make sure we are covering your needs

There's more! – 27 days annual leave + bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell one of your  weeks, access to our health care cash back plans, dental plans, discounted health assessments, Cycle to work and tech schemes, discounted and free onsite facilities, social events throughout the year and much more ….

Join us and you’ll find a different way of doing things. We call it the 4Cs. We focus on getting it right for our colleagues, customers, company and community. As one of our colleagues, you’ll be helping to drive our growth, so in return, we’ll give you all the support, training and development you need. Our 4Cs principles are simple: we believe by creating the right culture for our colleagues and giving them the right tools to do their job, we’ll deliver good outcomes for every customer, helping us to grow the company profitably and sustainably and allowing us to invest in the communities we serve.

Hastings Group is an equal opportunities employer which means we treat people fairly. We welcome applications from all suitably skilled persons regardless of their gender, age, race, disability, ethnic background, religion/belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or marital/family status. Please also note that we have a thorough referencing process, which includes credit and criminal record checks.

At Hastings Direct, we’re committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, we encourage you to be open with us. Our recruitment team is here to provide the support you need to ensure a fair and accessible experience for all.

Job posting end date: