Data Science Lead (DSL1) – KYC Global & Onboarding

Overview

As Data Science Lead, you shape the Verification Data Science roadmap for KYC Global and Onboarding in London, guiding a team that builds ML-powered KYC and document verification. You translate business needs into data-driven projects, ensure production-ready models, and drive improvements that balance risk mitigation with a smooth customer experience. You’ll lead cross-functional collaboration, stay at the forefront of ML research, and mentor growing data science talent. This role directly supports Wise’s mission to move money securely and efficiently at scale.

Pay / Benefits

• Stock options in a profitable company
• Hybrid working model
• Annual personal development budget
• Visa and relocation support

Responsibilities

• Own the data science roadmap and prioritise projects with cross-functional teams to align with business goals
• Lead planning and ideation of data science initiatives with integrated teams
• Identify opportunities to apply ML/data science techniques in KYC/onboarding
• Articulate value, limitations, and potential impact of DS initiatives to diverse stakeholders
• Manage and create large image and tabular datasets for KYC processes
• Iterate on deep learning image models and productionize improvements
• Measure and optimize performance of ML models in production
• Maintain and develop a large Python codebase using best practices
• Stay up-to-date with ML advances and translate into production-friendly systems
• Research document verification to prevent criminal activity and improve accuracy
• Coach and develop data scientists, provide feedback, support hiring as the team grows

Key requirements

• collaboration
• communication
• leadership
• machine learning
• deep learning
• Python

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