Principal Data Scientist / Principal ML Consultant

Principal Data Scientist / ML Consultant (Contract) Duration: 6 Months Engagement: Full-Time Contract Working Model: Hybrid (UK-based) Location: Client site attendance as required Start Date: ASAP Overview We are seeking a hands-on Principal Data Scientist / ML Consultant to lead the delivery of an existing machine learning programme through to a production-grade AWS deployment. This role requires someone who can provide technical leadership, mentor internal teams, and actively build, deploy, and operationalise machine learning solutions. Key Responsibilities • Design and develop predictive models to support commercial decision-making. • Utilise AutoML tools (e.g. AutoGluon, H2O AutoML, PyCaret) to accelerate model development. • Assess, prepare, and engineer data for modelling. • Deploy and operationalise ML solutions within AWS. • Implement MLOps practices including monitoring, retraining, and model governance. • Provide technical leadership and knowledge transfer to internal teams. • Manage stakeholder communication, providing clear recommendations and updates. Essential Skills • Strong hands-on Python and machine learning experience. • Proven track record delivering ML solutions into production. • Experience with AutoML frameworks. • Strong understanding of regression, forecasting, and predictive analytics. • Data engineering and pipeline development capability. • AWS ML deployment experience (e.g. SageMaker, ECS, Lambda). • Practical MLOps experience. • Excellent stakeholder management and consulting skills. • Experience mentoring data science teams. • AWS-native ML tooling and cloud architecture experience. • Experience delivering data-driven commercial or optimisation solutions. Deliverables • Production-grade ML solution deployed in AWS. • Established deployment, monitoring, and retraining processes. • Knowledge transfer and upskilling of the internal team.