Senior Data Scientist

Programme: Mission Systems & Integrated Logistics (MS&IL)

Location: Bristol, occasional travel to customer and Leidos sites may be required

We’re ready for you to unleash your potential!

Role Overview:

We are seeking a Senior Data Scientist to join us on a permanent basis. You will apply advanced analytical, statistical, and machine‑learning techniques to support major UK Government programmes and the wider enterprise, working across multidisciplinary teams throughout the UK.

You will collaborate with delivery managers, engineers, architects, and customer stakeholders to design, develop, and operationalise data‑driven solutions that deliver meaningful impact. This role offers the opportunity to deepen your expertise, contribute to high‑value projects, and help shape the analytical capability within one of the strongest teams in the business.

Your Responsibilities Will Include:

• Designing, developing, and validating statistical models and machine‑learning solutions
• Conducting exploratory data analysis and feature engineering to uncover insights and support decision‑making
• Working closely with data engineers to ensure high‑quality, scalable data pipelines for modelling
• Translating analytical findings into clear, actionable recommendations for technical and non‑technical audiences
• Supporting the development of analytical roadmaps, risk identification, and mitigation planning
• Contributing to the operationalisation and monitoring of models in production environments
• Evaluating emerging tools, frameworks, and methodologies to enhance analytical capability
• Providing guidance and informal mentorship to junior data scientists and analysts
• Ensuring responsible, ethical, and secure use of data and AI

Required Skills:

• Experience in data science, machine learning, or applied analytics
• Strong proficiency in Python and common ML libraries (pandas, NumPy, scikit‑learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch)
• Experience designing, training, and evaluating machine‑learning models
• Solid understanding of statistical methods, predictive modelling, and experimental design
• Experience working with large or complex datasets, including data cleansing and feature engineering
• Ability to communicate analytical concepts clearly to non‑technical stakeholders
• Experience working in an agile delivery environment
• Strong problem‑solving skills and attention to detail

Desired Skills:

• Experience with cloud‑based ML services (AWS SageMaker, Azure ML, Databricks)
• Familiarity with MLOps practices and model lifecycle management
• Experience with NLP, deep learning, or computer vision
• Knowledge of data visualisation tools (Power BI, Tableau)
• Exposure to big‑data technologies (Spark, Hadoop)
• AWS certifications
• Experience supporting government or highly regulated environments

Clearance Requirements:

• BPSS Pre-screening required to start
• SC required for the role
• Applicants must have (or be able to obtain) SC clearance

Leidos UK! Join our team and discover a culture of collaboration, innovation, diversity, trust, caring management, communication transparency, work-life balance, and overall job satisfaction...

What we do for you:
At Leidos we are PASSIONATE about customer success, UNITED as a team and INSPIRED to make a difference. We offer meaningful and engaging careers, a collaborative culture, and support for your career goals, all while nurturing a healthy work-life balance.
We provide an employment package that attracts, develops and retains only the best in talent. Our reward scheme includes:
•    Contributory Pension Scheme
•    Private Medical Insurance
•    33 days Annual Leave (including public and privilege holidays)
•    Access to Flexible benefits (including life assurance, health schemes, gym memberships, annual buy and sell holidays and a cycle to work scheme)

•    Flexible Working Scheme

Commitment to Diversity:

We welcome applications from every part of the community and are committed to a truly diverse and inclusive culture.  We foster a sense of belonging, welcoming all perspectives and contributions, and providing equal access to opportunities and resources for everyone.  If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages please let us know, and we will respond in a way that best fits your needs.

Who We Are:

Leidos UK & EUROPE – we work to make the world safer, healthier, and more efficient through technology, engineering and science.

Leidos is a growing company delivering innovative technology and solutions focused on safeguarding critical capabilities and transformation in frontline services, our work in the United Kingdom includes addressing some of the most complex problems in defence, healthcare, government, safety and security, and transportation.

What Makes Us Different:

Purpose: you can use your passion and abilities at Leidos to keep the people you care about safe. We are at the forefront of machine learning, AI, cyber security and solutions. Using your skills in the technology frontline by helping to build a safer world.  You can inspire change.

Collaboration: having flexibility to do your job is one of our core benefits, enabling you to become part of our extraordinary team.  We have been empowering our people to work flexibly for years.  Whether you work from home, the office or on customer sites, we will give you the digital tools and the flexibility to work smarter and align your needs and ours.          

People: Leidos empowers people from every background to be themselves and gives you the tools to learn new skills by enabling growth whilst developing. We believe that extraordinary people need opportunities to grow, to be inspired and to inspire others. At Leidos, we invest in technical academies, career rotations and a career development plans that enhance your future.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

Pay Range:

£61,500.00-£78,800.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.