Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP) is seeking an experienced Principal Data Scientist to provide senior technical leadership across our growing real ‑ world evidence (RWE) portfolio. We are seeking someone who can build a QA/QC and technical assurance framework from first principles—anchored in strong data architecture and process—to enable the delivery of top ‑ tier , defensible analytical products.
In this role, you will act as a senior technical authority , shaping and assuring complex analytical work that informs decision ‑ making across health systems, research and innovation partners. You will lead the development of analytical and data engineering standards, support the evolution of ICHP’s RWE offer, and provide hands ‑ on technical input to priority and high ‑ risk projects . For example, large ‑ scale linkage of NHS data with non ‑ healthcare sources (e.g. HMRC or Department for Education datasets), and the development or evaluation of machine ‑ learning models intended to inform clinical or operational decision ‑ making . These projects require advanced governance, reproducibility, explain ability and senior technical assurance to ensure defensible, regulator ‑ ready outputs.
This is a specialist role without formal line management responsibility , operating through expertise , credibility and collaboration. You will work closely with the Associate Director of Strategy & Insights and the Senior Quantitative Insights Manager (RWE) , influencing how real ‑ world data is used safely, rigorously and effectively to improve population health.
We welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds. We are particularly interested in candidates with experience delivering high ‑ quality analytics in regulated environments such as healthcare, academia, public sector or other data ‑ intensive industries.
About Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP)
ICHP is a partnership organisation bringing together healthcare providers and universities across North West London. We work collaboratively across our health and research ecosystem in NWL and with industry partners to deliver innovation in practice.
Our goals:
Health: a healthier population, enabled by a systematic focus on prevention, detection and treatment of disease
Growth: a vibrant UK economy driven by a productive population and thriving healthcare and life sciences industry
Service: a sustainable health and care service that delivers high quality care for all citizens
Our priorities:
Create: cultivate the best conditions for the end-to-end testing and scaling of innovation
Advance: data-driven change, harnessing our capabilities and assets across the lifecycle
Sustain: support our members with the problems of today, enabling an NHS Fit for the Future
Shape: the future of health through investments in advanced technologies and funding models
ICHP delivers analytical and real ‑ world evidence (RWE) services to system partners, researchers and commercial clients, drawing on assets including Discover, a depersonalised longitudinal dataset covering over 2.9 million people.
In this role, you will:
Provide senior technical oversight and quality assurance across complex or high ‑ risk analytical projects, acting as final technical reviewer where required .
Lead the development and continuous improvement of ICHP’s real ‑ world evidence standards, including analytical pipelines, data engineering, reproducibility and QA/QC.
Provide hands ‑ on technical input to priority projects, advising on feasibility, data preparation, linkage approaches, and reproducible delivery.
Ensure all analytical work complies with Five Safes principles, governance and disclosure control requirements.
Act as a visible technical leader, sharing best practice, supporting capability building and contributing to a culture of continuous improvement.