Lead Applied research, advisory

The work

Works on problems where the method is not settled yet.

A standing second opinion. Small commitments, and the ones where being right matters most because nobody is checking your work.

The bar

You have owned delivery and you have set the standard others worked to, including saying no to work that was already funded.

Why this one is hard to judge. Publication record is a signal but not the signal, because the applied question is whether it survives contact with a product.

What we ask to see

• Work where the method was not settled when you started
• What you tried that did not work, and what you learned from it
• A written artefact: a paper, a report, or an internal write-up we can read

One solid item beats five vague ones. A referee we can actually call beats a link to a landing page.

What gets an application declined

• The only evidence offered is a certification, a course, or a job title
• Every piece of evidence is under an NDA and no sanitised version or referee is offered
• The work described is entirely a demonstration, a proof of concept, or a hackathon
• More than six disciplines are claimed, which we read as a signal that none has been assessed

If we decline you, the reason is written down and sent to you. The software refuses a decline without one.

What it pays

£400 to £788 a day. That is the tenth to ninetieth percentile of what UK employers advertised for the closest published titles over the six months to 8 August 2026.

Advertised UK contract day rates for Data Scientist, Artificial Intelligence, tenth to ninetieth percentile, six months to 8 August 2026. Advertised, not agreed, and set by the hirer rather than by us.