Office location: Cambridgeshire, UK – This position offers flexible working options, including predominantly remote work. However, applicants should be based (or be willing to relocate) within a comfortable commuting distance of our office to attend onsite as required.
Are you an experienced data scientist who loves building models that make a real impact, and is ready to lead and grow a talented team?
As Associate Director of Data Science at Jagex, you'll lead a team of data scientists, setting their direction and supporting their development, while continuing to build and own models yourself. Working closely with senior stakeholders across Player Support, Marketing, Analytics, and our Game Teams, you'll develop the algorithms and models that power our business and help shape the experience of millions of RuneScape players.
This is an exciting opportunity to combine hands-on delivery with team leadership, owning our MLOps practice and making sure the models we build are deployed, monitored, and maintained reliably once they're live.
What you'll be doing:
- Lead a team of data scientists, setting direction, managing workload, and supporting their growth and development.
- Build and own data science models that support teams across the business.
- Lead the exploration of new business areas and data science models that can be embedded within the business, drawing on both industry developments and internal use cases.
- Own the team's MLOps practice, including model deployment, monitoring, versioning, and retraining pipelines, working closely with Data Engineering.
- Lead the delivery of data science initiatives from ideation through to production.
- Act as the day-to-day point of contact for Player Support, Marketing, Analytics, and the Game Teams on all things data science.
- Coach and mentor data scientists on both technical delivery and stakeholder management.
- Stay current with the latest data science and MLOps tooling and practice, bringing that knowledge into the team.
What we're looking for:
- Significant experience applying data science to complex commercial, product, or player-facing problems.
- Strong practical knowledge of statistical methods, predictive modelling, and machine learning, including evaluating model performance.
- Hands-on experience with MLOps in a production environment, including model deployment, monitoring, versioning, and retraining.
- Experience leading or mentoring data scientists, with evidence of coaching and workload management.
- A track record of taking analytical or modelling work from exploration through to live, adopted use.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience working directly with senior, non-technical stakeholders.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to translate technical work into plain language for business audiences.
What we offer:
When you join Jagex you can look forward to a generous Perks & Benefits package including:
- Private Healthcare, including Dental Plan.
- Minimum 6% Pension contributions.
- Employee Assistance Programme & onsite Counselling.
- Life Insurance.
- Discretionary annual performance bonus.
- Enhanced family leave policies from day 1.
- Flexible working hours.
- 25 days annual leave + Bank holidays & the option to buy/sell holidays + so much more!
Inclusion & Accessibility Statement
We are committed to providing equal opportunities and creating an environment where everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, and we recruit, develop, and promote based on merit and ability.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you during the recruitment process, please let us know when you’re invited to interview.
About Jagex:
We are Jagex: The RuneScape Company- home to one of gaming’s most enduring success stories. We create deep, community-powered games with worlds that evolve, inspire, and endure. Our flagship MMORPG franchise, RuneScape has welcomed over 300 million player accounts, inspiring generations of players across PC and mobile for 25 years.
As we begin our 26th year, we are accelerating our strategy to expand RuneScape into a broader ecosystem of forever games and connected experiences, grounded in a renewed commitment to integrity and fair play. This includes the reduction of monetisation mechanics, as well as the launch of RuneScape: DragonWilds into Steam Early Access in 2025 representing a major step in building a multi-genre future for the RuneScape universe. We remain focused on building enduring worlds, empowering player-led innovation, and laying the foundations for the boldest era in RuneScape’s history. For more information, visit www.jagex.com.
Headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, We are home to passionate creators, storytellers, engineers, and even a few dreamers, all united by a single mission- to shape the future of online worlds and empower players to make them their own. We’re looking for people to join us who share our ambitions & values - We foster an inclusive workplace built on trust, autonomy, and a shared passion for creating experiences which inspire our communities. Our values guide everything we do: We Embrace Fellowship by collaborating and sharing openly. We Hone our Craft by always learning and improving; We Honour our Vows by being honest and transparent; We are our Customers’ Heroes by striving to understand our team & player needs, and We Seize The Day by making the most of every opportunity.
Join us. The next era of RuneScape - and the next chapter of Jagex: The RuneScape Company - starts now.
We are committed to providing equal opportunities and creating an environment where everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, and we recruit, develop, and promote based on merit and ability.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you during the recruitment process, please let us know when you’re invited to interview.
Skills Required
- Significant experience applying data science to complex commercial, product, or player-facing problems.
- Strong practical knowledge of statistical methods, predictive modelling, and machine learning, including model performance evaluation.
- Hands-on production MLOps experience, including model deployment, monitoring, versioning, and retraining.
- Experience leading or mentoring data scientists, including coaching and workload management.
- Track record of taking analytical or modelling work from exploration through live, adopted use.
- Strong stakeholder management skills with senior, non-technical stakeholders.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including translating technical work into plain language.
What We Do
A leader in creating deep and engaging forever games on PC, Console & Mobile that empower our communities. Jagex was founded in 2001 and is today one of the UK’s biggest and most respected video game developers and publishers. Famed for its flagship MMOs RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, Jagex has welcomed more than 300 million player accounts to its world and created a $1bn lifetime franchise revenue. Today the RuneScape franchise exists beyond running games in live operations; our titles are forever games that connect and inspire millions of players, with content and experiences both inside and outside of inexhaustible game worlds. Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, on PC and mobile, offer ever-evolving, highly-active worlds and our community-focused development ethos empowers players to have a real say in how each game is shaped. Jagex has added to its skill set with the acquisitions of Pipeworks and Gamepires in 2022, bringing our expertise to titles such as SCUM, helping to make SCUM a forever game. It also works with external partners on products such as Melvor Idle and This Means Warp; bringing these titles to new and existing audiences. Jagex employs more than 600 people at its Cambridge headquarters and around the world at Pipeworks in North America, and Gamepires in Europe. We’re always on the hunt for talented people to work across the business, to help the company to achieve its goals.
