Data Scientist - UK

Type: Full-time, salaried employment
Location: Remote in the UK only.
Salary Range: £60,000 to  £70,000 + stock options

Focal Systems is the industry leader in retail AI solutions. We are headquartered in San Francisco, California with operations in Canada and the UK, and a tech-hub in Poland. We are a Deep Learning first company. Our mission is to automate and optimize brick and mortar retail using deep learning computer vision. Focal Systems has been deployed at scale with some of the top retailers in the world.

We seek smart, creative and passionate people who want to help build a great and enduring company and deploy Deep Learning to the world!

About the Role

As a Senior Data Scientist on our Analytics team, you will own end-to-end problems that combine applied statistics, experimentation, and machine learning to drive measurable improvements in how our retail AI products perform in the real world. You will work on ambiguous, open-ended questions, define the right approach, and deliver insights and models that influence the roadmap of Product, Engineering, and Operations.

This is a senior individual contributor role. You will set the technical direction for your projects, partner with cross-functional stakeholders, and act as a force multiplier for analytics quality across the company.

What We Are Looking For

You are a rigorous thinker who treats data as evidence, not decoration, and is comfortable telling a clear story about uncertainty

You have strong technical chops in SQL and Python, and you reach for the right tool, statistical, experimental, or ML, based on the problem in front of you

You can design experiments, reason about causality, and identify when a correlation is enough and when it is not

You are comfortable owning ambiguous, open-ended problems and breaking them down into a credible plan

You communicate findings crisply to technical and non-technical audiences, in writing, in dashboards, and in person

You raise the bar for the team through code review, methodology review, and mentorship of less senior analysts and scientists

What You Will Be Doing

Own analytical problems end to end from problem framing and metric definition through data acquisition, modeling, validation, and stakeholder rollout

Build predictive and inferential models such as forecasts, propensity and uplift models, and survival or duration analyses, where they meaningfully improve a product or operational decision

Develop statistical methods and reusable analyses for measuring performance, including detection accuracy, intervention impact, and downstream operational outcomes

Partner with Product, Engineering, and Operations to define key metrics, implement new features, and translate business questions into well-scoped analytical work

Audit system outputs and provide structured feedback that improves product accuracy and reliability

Communicate findings through dashboards, written analyses, and stakeholder presentations that lead to concrete decisions

Help define best practices around data quality, experimentation, modeling, and reproducibility, and contribute to the team’s data contracts and SOPs

Requirements

5+ years of experience as a Data Scientist, Quantitative Analyst, or similar role, with a track record of shipping analyses and models that changed product or business decisions

Strong proficiency in SQL, including complex CTEs, window functions, and query optimization

Strong proficiency in Python for data work, including pandas, NumPy, and experience with statsmodels or other relevant tools

Solid grounding in applied statistics: hypothesis testing, regression, experimental design, and uncertainty quantification

Experience designing and analyzing A/B tests or other controlled experiments in a product setting

Experience building at least one class of predictive model end to end, for example forecasting, classification, or propensity modeling

Experience with data visualization and BI tools, and the ability to turn an analysis into a clear narrative

Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to influence cross-functional partners without authority

Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and drive ambiguous projects to completion

Nice to Have

Experience with Snowflake or a comparable cloud data warehouse

Experience with Sigma, Looker, or similar BI tools

Experience with database engineering/architecture 

Background in retail, logistics, marketplaces, or other operationally complex environments

Experience mentoring analysts or junior data scientists

Why Focal Systems

Strong Values and Mission - We are a tightly-knit team with an ambitious mission and a strong set of core values, which define our approach to business and have successfully guided us since inception.

Exceptional Team - We are a team of hard-working, fun-loving professionals from some of the most eminent universities, research labs, and tech companies of our time. We pride ourselves on recruiting exceptional individuals to help us redefine the state-of-the-art.

Outstanding Partners - We work with 10+ of the largest retailers in the world and have a world-class roster of investors, advisors and partners to support & advise us in our endeavors.

What we offer
We care deeply about the health, happiness, and wellbeing of all of our employees. We offer:    

Competitive Salary & Attractive Stock

Generous Paid Time Off 

Pension

Sick Leave

Parental Leave

Learning and Development Budget