Data Scientist (Contractor)

Senior Data Scientist / Machine Learning Specialist6 Month Contract | Inside IR35 | Hybrid London 2 to 3 days per week £637.50 to £935 per day Start Date: 1st September 2026 | Interviews taking place immediately We are supporting a leading consultancy on an engagement focused on advanced analytics, risk modelling and data driven decision making across complex regulatory and financial environments. This is a high impact contract role for an experienced Data Scientist or Machine Learning Specialist who can operate across the full lifecycle from exploratory analysis through to deployment and monitoring within a modern production environment. What You Will Be Doing • Building and validating machine learning models including classification, unsupervised learning such as anomaly and outlier detection and ranking models • Performing deep exploratory data analysis to identify trends, risk clusters and early signals • Conducting time series analysis to assess trends across financial periods • Engineering robust features from structured and semi structured datasets • Deploying models into production using containerised environments • Working closely with stakeholders to translate business challenges into analytical solutions • Supporting model monitoring, optimisation and drift detection Core Skills and Experience • Strong Python experience including pandas, NumPy and scikit learn for modelling and data manipulation • Advanced SQL skills for querying structured datasets • Proven experience developing and validating machine learning models • Experience with ML deployment using containerisation or pipeline tools such as SageMaker or similar • Strong experience with Git for version control • Solid understanding of time series analysis and trend evaluation • Excellent exploratory data analysis skills Desirable Experience • Knowledge of ensemble and rank aggregation techniques such as Robust Rank Fusion • Experience with model explainability tools such as SHAP or LIME • Exposure to model monitoring frameworks and drift detection • Background in regulatory, risk or financial crime related projects • Experience with record linkage or entity resolution • Knowledge of graph analytics including Cypher or Gremlin, graph databases such as Neo4j or Neptune and network analysis or visualisation tools Why This Role • Opportunity to work on complex data challenges within a consulting environment • Exposure to advanced machine learning techniques and modern deployment practices • High impact role with strong ownership and autonomy If you are an experienced Data Scientist with strong modelling expertise and experience delivering in fast paced environments, apply now. Interviews are being arranged immediately.