Data Scientist - Sales & Marketing
Hybrid in London
The company
Imagine a world where every small business has the power to thrive. That's the world we're building at iwoca. Small businesses aren't just statistics – they're the heartbeat of our communities, the character of our high streets, and the engine of our economy. Since 2012, we've revolutionised how these businesses access finance, turning what was once a lengthy, frustrating process into something remarkable: funding that's fast, flexible, and actually works for modern businesses.
Our impact speaks for itself: we've provided billions in funding to over 150,000 businesses across Europe, making us one of the continent's leading fintech innovators. But we're just getting started. Our mission? To empower one million businesses with the financial tools they deserve.
We combine cutting-edge technology and data science with genuine human understanding to make finance feel less like a barrier and more like a superpower. Whether it's managing cash flow or seizing unexpected opportunities, we ensure businesses get the funds they need – often within minutes.
The team
The Sales & Marketing (“Direct Acquisition”) team comprises our Marketing, Sales and Acquitech teams. We are responsible for reaching small and advertising finance to UK small businesses of all shapes and sizes. We do this through paid and organic marketing channels as well as direct sales.
We are an autonomous team with marketing, sales, software development, product, design, and data science team members. As a Data Scientist, you’ll work day to day with team members in all functions.
The role
As a Data Scientist in our Direct Acquisition team, you will play a crucial role working to set up and analyse tests, and to build statistical models. The data-driven insights you produce will help us develop strategies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our sales and marketing.
Strategy and innovation:
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Work closely with the Head of Direct Acquisition, team and channel leads to ensure that your work aligns with business goals and achieves valuable commercial outcomes.
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Design experiments to compare the performance of different strategies and evaluate them to inform decisions.
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Share your findings and modelling with the wider business to impact our strategy.
Ownership and influence:
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Independently build models to help solve our business problems, with responsibility for the solution design.
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Promote analytical rigour within the team, ensuring that our experimental designs are correctly defined and that we evaluate tests without bias.
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iwoca lives and breathes data, so data scientists have a key role in decision-making.
Development opportunities:
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Join our community of analysts/data scientists/statisticians to ensure alignment in methodology across iwoca. You’ll be part of a peer group with whom you can discuss best practices or the latest advances so that you share and deepen your technical expertise.
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Build expertise in Acquisition processes across the full range of marketing and sales activities.
The projects
Here are some examples of projects you might work on:
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Setting up, monitoring and analysing split tests to help understand the value of marketing and sales activities. This could include determining the return on investment of different types of marketing strategies.
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Building predictive models based on sales and marketing data, to determine whether certain activities lead to a positive return.
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Building statistical models to enhance the ability of sales teams to do accurate forecasting and capacity planning.
The requirements
Essential:
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Strong problem-solving skills in probability and statistics.
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Ability to dive deep into the business context and translate data into actionable insights.
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Capability to manage projects end-to-end and produce good outcomes without much supervision.
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Proficiency with data manipulation and modelling tools — e.g., pandas, statsmodels, R.
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Experience with scientific computing and tooling — e.g., NumPy, SciPy, R, Matlab, Mathematica, BLAS.
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Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Physics or equivalent.
Bonus:
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Experience implementing solutions in a production environment (e.g., continuous integration).
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Experience with Python. (Note: we mostly work in Python.)
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Experience with Bayesian statistics.
The salary
We expect to pay from £70,000 - £90,000 for this role. But, we’re open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly performance and salary reviews.
The culture
At iwoca, we prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. We value thought and skill diversity, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us innovate and improve our products and services.
The offices
We put a lot of effort into making iwoca a great place to work:
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Offices in London, Leeds, Frankfurt, and Berlin with plenty of drinks and snacks.
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Events and clubs, like bingo, comedy nights, yoga classes, football, etc.
The benefits
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Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
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A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents.
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25 days’ holiday, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional five days of annual leave, and unlimited unpaid leave.
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A one-month, fully paid sabbatical after four years.
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Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions for team members that need emotional or mental health support.
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3% pension contributions on total earnings.
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An employee equity incentive scheme.
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Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
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Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme.
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Two company retreats a year, we’ve been to France, Italy, Spain, and further afield.
And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:
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A learning and development budget for everyone.
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Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers.
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Access to learning platforms like Treehouse.
Useful links:
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See iwoca benefits & policies for detail and some additional benefits.
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See interview welcome pack to learn more about the process.
Top Skills
What We Do
iwoca was founded to expand possibilities for small businesses.
At iwoca, we believe finance should feel like a superpower, not a headache. That’s why our founders, Chris and James, decided to create a solution custom-built for small businesses. One that strips out the hassle, gets to know what each business needs, and looks for opportunities rather than problems. One that provides access to finance where and when your business needs it.
Our partner integrations and our Lending API mean we can provide access to finance where and when small businesses need it. Our award winning credit risk engine help us make faster, more accurate credit decisions built around the performance of the business.
We are proud to be NACFB Lender of the year, Xero Financial Services App of the year and, most recently, winner of the £10m Banking Competition Remedies grant.
Since 2012, we’ve made funding available to over 50,000 businesses, from cafés to car dealers, salons to solicitors. But we’ve only just started. Our mission is to fund one million small businesses.