Data Scientist - FMCG, Distribution & Operations

The role: You will work across the full analytical lifecycle, including:

• Working with stakeholders across Sales, Operations and Distribution to understand their challenges.
• Turning loosely defined business problems into clear analytical plans.
• Identifying, acquiring and assessing the quality of relevant data.
• Using Python, SQL and Snowflake to explore and structure large datasets.
• Building forecasting, classification, clustering, regression and optimisation models.
• Developing repeatable analytical models and pipelines rather than one-off analyses.
• Applying experimentation and causal inference methods to measure the impact of business decisions.
• Connecting analytical outputs to measurable operational and commercial outcomes.
• Presenting findings and recommendations clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Managing your own work and providing proactive updates on progress, risks and dependencies.
• Using tools such as Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot within a structured development workflow.
• Contributing to daily stand-ups, planning sessions, technical discussions and peer reviews.

This is not a pure modelling position. You will be expected to understand the business problem behind the analysis and explain how your work should influence real decisions.

Your skills and experience: The successful candidate will have:

• Three or more years of commercial Data Science or applied analytics experience.
• Strong Python skills, including pandas, scikit-learn and common Data Science libraries.
• Advanced SQL skills and experience working with large or varied datasets.
• Commercial experience using Snowflake.
• A good grounding in statistics, machine learning and model validation.
• Experience applying forecasting, classification, clustering, regression or optimisation in a business environment.
• Experience handling messy real-world data and making sensible decisions around data quality.
• Practical experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot or similar.
• Experience within FMCG, consumer goods, retail, logistics, distribution or supply chain.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• The ability to take ownership of a problem and deliver with limited supervision.
• A personable, positive and collaborative working style.
• Availability to work until approximately 7pm UK time.

Desirable experience: Experience in any of the following areas would be beneficial:

• Distribution or logistics analytics.
• Direct Store Delivery or route-to-market operations.
• Time-series forecasting.
• Mathematical optimisation or operations research.
• Vehicle routing or territory planning.
• Geospatial analytics.
• Google OR-Tools, Gurobi or SciPy.
• Streamlit, Shiny for Python or similar analytical applications.
• Consulting or embedded client delivery.

Contract details

£400 per day.

Outside IR35.

Initial six-month contract.

Remote working from the UK.

Later working hours, with availability required until approximately 7pm UK time.

Two-stage interview process.