Senior Data Scientist
Job summary
Are you a skilled data scientist ready to make a real difference for children and young people? Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join our Data Science team in Innovation Department.
This is a fixed-term, grant-funded position (supported by Charities Together) where you will be responsible for leading advanced risk modelling and machine learning projects aimed at enhancing services, efficiency, and outcomes for our patients and their families.Working primarily in Databricks using SQL and Python, you will develop models and analytical products on Trust datasets, turning complex data into clear, actionable insight.
You will work closely with clinicians, operational leads and digital colleagues across the Trust, translating real service needs into robust analytical solutions. This is a fantastic opportunity to apply your data science skills in a meaningful setting and supporting one of Europe's leading children's hospitals.
Main duties of the job
You will lead and manage multiple data science projects from requirements through to delivery, agreeing outputs, milestones and timescales with stakeholders. Your core work will involve designing, developing, validating and maintaining analytical and predictive models that address operational and clinical needs across the Trust.
Using Databricks as the primary development environment, you will build reproducible, auditable analytical workflows in SQL and Python, including data preparation, quality checks, feature engineering and modelling. You will also design and deliver reporting products and dashboards (for example in Power BI) to communicate clear, actionable insight to decision-makers.
A key part of the role is stakeholder engagement where you will work collaboratively with clinical, operational and digital teams to ensure your solutions are credible, fit for purpose and adopted in practice. You will communicate complex findings clearly through reports, presentations and visualisations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
You will maintain appropriate documentation and version control, comply with information governance requirements including UK GDPR and Caldicott Principles, and support colleagues through mentoring and sharing best practice.
About us
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is one of Europe's biggest and busiest children's hospitals, caring for over 450,000 children and young people each year. Based in Liverpool, we provide care across a purpose-built hospital in the Park, our community sites, and through innovation and research that reaches well beyond our walls.
Our Innovation team sits at the heart of the Trust's ambition to be world-leading, and the Data Science function is a key part of that vision. You will join a supportive, forward-thinking team working on projects that have real impact on patient care and Trust operations.
We offer a range of benefits including NHS Pension, generous annual leave, flexible working, and access to learning and development opportunities. Our values are at the centre of everything we do.
Sponsorship -- We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications are considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other candidates. Please be aware, not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and requirements on the government website.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The Senior Data Scientist will lead the design, development and delivery of advanced analytics and machine learning projects that support clinical and operational improvement across Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
Working primarily in Databricks using SQL and Python, the postholder will develop, validate and maintain analytical and predictive models on curated Trust datasets. This includes full responsibility for data preparation activities such as data quality checks, cleansing, preprocessing and feature engineering, ensuring all work follows agreed definitions and is reproducible and auditable.
The postholder will create reporting products and dashboards (for example using Power BI) that communicate clear, actionable insight to support decision-making. They will manage multiple concurrent projects, agreeing requirements, outputs, milestones and timescales with stakeholders and providing regular progress updates to the Head of Data Science, including early escalation of risks with proposed mitigations.
Stakeholder engagement is central to this role. The postholder will work closely with clinicians, operational leads and digital colleagues to ensure analytical outputs reflect the problem being addressed, are clinically and operationally credible, and can be adopted safely into routine practice. This includes communicating complex findings through written reports, presentations and data visualisations tailored to both technical and non-technical audiences.
The postholder will maintain appropriate documentation, version control and change control to support the safe development and deployment of new outputs. They will handle confidential and sensitive information in accordance with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, Caldicott Principles and Trust policies.
The role also carries responsibility for supporting the professional development of colleagues, including mentoring junior staff and promoting best practice across the data science lifecycle. The postholder will provide cover for the Head of Data Science when required and support portfolio oversight activities as appropriate.
The postholder will be expected to maintain up-to-date knowledge of industry developments, best practice standards and emerging techniques relevant to data science in healthcare settings.
For full details, please refer to the attached job description and person specification.
Person Specification
Education and Training
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, or a related quantitative discipline.
- Further post-graduate qualification and/or relevant certification in data science, machine learning, cloud or data platforms.
Experience
- Proven experience leading and delivering advanced analytics/data science work end-to-end in an NHS/healthcare/acute trust context (or a demonstrably transferable regulated, data-sensitive environment).
- Demonstrable experience delivering analytics/data science work using Databricks (e.g., notebooks and SQL) with large datasets.
- Strong practical experience in SQL and Python (or R), including data preparation, data quality checks and feature engineering.
- Experience producing clear, actionable insight products (e.g., Power BI dashboards) and communicating findings to varied audiences.
- Experience working within information governance requirements and handling confidential/sensitive information appropriately.
- Experience operationalising repeatable analytical workloads (e.g., scheduled jobs/workflows, monitoring, version control).
- Experience working with Azure (or equivalent cloud services) used for analytics delivery.
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum delivery environments.
- Experience mentoring and supporting colleagues and contributing to capability building within a team.
Knowledge
- Strong knowledge of statistics and machine learning methods and when to apply them, including appropriate evaluation and limitations.
- Understanding of the data science lifecycle, reproducibility, and the controls needed for safe delivery in healthcare settings.
- Understanding of data quality considerations and the impact of bias, confounding and missingness on analytical outputs.
- Knowledge of responsible AI practices (e.g., bias/fairness, interpretability and monitoring) in healthcare contexts.
- Demonstrable experience with model lifecycle management and/or MLOps concepts, proportionate to the role.
Skills
- Advanced SQL capability and strong programming skills in Python or R.
- Ability to work effectively in Databricks to develop reproducible analysis and modelling workflows (SQL/Python).
- Ability to produce clear visualisations and reporting products (e.g., Power BI) to support decision-making.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including translating complex analysis for non-technical audiences.
- Strong stakeholder engagement skills, including requirements gathering, expectation management and delivery planning.
- Knowledge and practical experience of hospital systems and datasets (where relevant locally).
- PySpark experience.
- Experience with NLP and/or computer vision techniques (where relevant to Trust priorities).
- Experience using deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
Personal Attributes
- Highly organised, with the ability to manage competing priorities and work to deadlines.
- Proactive, collaborative and adaptable, with a commitment to continuous improvement.
- High attention to detail and commitment to quality.
- Professional, discreet and able to handle sensitive information appropriately.
- Willingness to mentor others and contribute to a positive team culture.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.
Employer details
Employer name
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Alder Hey Childrens Hospital
Liverpool
L12 2AP
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://alderhey.nhs.uk/