Principal Data Scientist
Location: London
Mode of working: Hybrid. Minimum 3 days/week in office.
Objective: AI Maturity
Above Role:
The Principal Data Scientist / AI Technical Lead works with established and highly capable ML teams to advance their technical maturity. This role provides deep technical leadership, challenges existing approaches, and helps teams push beyond baseline ML into more advanced, scalable, and performant solutions while remaining grounded in business value.
Key responsibilities:
- Advise on advanced model design and selection
- Support sophisticated feature engineering strategies
- Guide teams through complex experimentation and optimisation
- Provide leadership on deep learning approaches
- Support modern model architectures and advanced techniques
- Help teams assess when advanced approaches are appropriate
- Improve model performance, efficiency, and latency
- Support scaling models for larger datasets and higher throughput
- Optimise training and inference pipelines
- Provide deep guidance on production‑grade MLOps
- Support reliability, monitoring, and operational robustness
- Ensure models can be maintained and evolved over time
- Define and promote experimentation frameworks
- Support:
- A/B testing
- Model comparison strategies
- Reproducibility and governance
- Strengthen scientific rigour in ML delivery
- Act as a credible peer to senior and PhD‑level data scientists
- Confidently challenge and influence technical decisions
- Balance innovation with business practicality
Must‑have skills:
- Expert‑level Python in the ML stack
- Very strong, hands‑on ML experience
- Strong deep learning expertise
- Strong Databricks experience
- Deep understanding of MLOps in production environments
- Proven technical credibility and leadership
- Excellent problem‑solving and structured thinking abilities
- Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement
- Ability to self‑start and work proactively
- Strong business understanding and pragmatic delivery approach
- Patience, coaching mindset, and focus on stakeholder needs
Nice to have
- GenAI experience
What we offer
- The chance to work with impact. Here, you’re empowered to bring your biggest thinking to help our company and clients improve everyday life.
- Ownership over your career. Stay at the top of your game through our award-winning learning and development ecosystem. And when your ambitions change or we offer new opportunities, we help you pivot by providing reskilling, on-the-job learning and guidance to find new roles that might be a better fit.
- The opportunity to thrive on a high caliber team with heart. We celebrate each other’s experiences and perspectives and promote a sense of belonging through our affinity groups and diversity and inclusion initiatives.
- A comprehensive total rewards package, including a competitive salary and a pension plan with matching contributions.
- Flexible health and financial benefits to support you and your eligible dependents—from day one.
- True work-life balance. Be at your best through paid time off, flexible work arrangements, volunteering opportunities, social events, and so much more.
About us
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is an AI Builder and technology services provider, building the bridge between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization’s unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, realize tangible returns and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant.
Other employment-related information
Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial or local laws.
If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email [email protected] with your request and contact information.
Language requirements vary depending on roles, but we ask that all candidates have basic English proficiency for company-wide communications purposes. For roles based in Quebec, professional English proficiency is required, as you’ll deliver services to and collaborate with stakeholders outside the province who may not speak French.