Hastings Direct is a UK-based digital general insurance provider serving more than 2.7 million customers with car, van, bike, home, and pet insurance. Its business combines product manufacturing and distribution, supported by pricing, fraud management, customer relationship management, and digital marketing capabilities. Hastings Direct also works closely with major price comparison websites and has a workforce of more than 3,400. For job seekers, its careers profile reflects a large, digitally focused insurance organisation with opportunities connected to insurance operations, technology, marketing, and customer service.
Data Scientist – Hastings Direct (Hybrid, UK)
Build and evaluate predictive models for pricing, underwriting, and insurance risk at Hastings Direct, a UK digital insurer. Contribute to production deployment, model monitoring, and reproducible data science tooling.
Description
- Support the design, development, and deployment of predictive models for insurance pricing.
- Build and maintain models that assess risk and guide pricing and underwriting decisions.
- Help integrate predictive models into production systems.
- Assist with ongoing model monitoring and maintenance.
- Create and improve reusable tools, pipelines, and processes for reliable, efficient, and reproducible modelling.
- Apply agreed standards for coding, documentation, testing, and model development.
- Identify, evaluate, and prepare new data features.
- Assess feature predictive value, stability, interpretability, and potential effects on customer pricing outcomes.
- Take part in recruiter screening, hiring manager introductions, and hiring team case study interviews.
Requirements
- Experience building and evaluating predictive models, including linear and gradient-boosted models.
- Proficiency in Python and relevant machine-learning libraries.
- Proficiency in SQL for preparing and transforming data for predictive modelling.
- Basic knowledge of Git or another version control system.
- Strong communication and time-management skills.
- Evidence of delivering data science solutions that influenced business decisions and produced measurable commercial value.
- Experience with Azure Machine Learning Studio or a comparable cloud ML platform is desirable.
- Experience with Snowflake or a comparable cloud data platform is desirable.
- Experience in general insurance is desirable.
- Applicants must be able to work without sponsorship; sponsorship is unavailable.
- Successful applicants must complete credit and criminal record checks.
Benefits
- Flexible hybrid working.
- Annual 4Cs performance bonus.
- Life assurance worth four times salary.
- Income protection at no extra cost.
- Matched pension contributions of up to 10%.
- Discounts and cashback offers.
- Free independent mortgage advice.
- Free financial wellbeing support.
- Access to the Thrive mental health app.
- 24/7 colleague assistance programme.
- In-house mental health first aiders.
- Support groups.
- Dedicated mental wellbeing team.
- 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays.
- Option to buy or sell one week of leave.
- Healthcare cashback plans.
- Dental plans.
- Discounted health assessments.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Technology schemes.
- Discounted and free onsite facilities.
- Social events throughout the year.
- Training and development support.