Data Scientist Lead

ABOUT US

Food waste is a $1 trillion problem – costing the world over 1% of global GDP. We’re dead set on solving the problem and looking for people to help us achieve our mission. We, at Winnow, believe that food is far too valuable to waste, and that technology can transform the way we produce food. Our team is made of people who all share a passion for food and technology.

Winnow was founded in London in 2013 to help the hospitality industry prevent food waste through internet of things tools in the kitchen. We have worked with hundreds of sites and are operating in over 60 countries around the world supported by our offices in London, Dubai, Singapore, Romania and North America. We are a rapidly growing company with a strong base of clients who are rolling out our system globally. We have blue-chip customers including Accor Hotels, IKEA, IHG, Marriott, Compass Group and many others.

As the global leader in addressing food waste, we are committed to continue pushing the envelope on what technology can do to solve this problem. Winnow Vision, our new artificial intelligence-based technology, is trained to automatically track all food waste thrown away. It has won awards at the World Economic Forum and has received tremendous enthusiasm from our clients and the industry. You can read more about it on our website and this article in Forbes.

Other recent accolades saw Winnow awarded a winner of Impact 50's most impactful companies to work for, as well as included in the Top 30 Best Small and Medium companies to work for in 2023 by undelucram.ro.

We are passionate about living our values and place them at the centre of everything we do.

THE ROLE

About the team

The Data team plays a critical role in the continuous improvement of our flagship product - Winnow Vision. We've collected millions of images of food items already, and keep collecting thousands every day from the kitchens we operate in. Those images need to be processed, curated and structured to optimise the quality and accuracy of our AI models. Managing this big data pipeline is no easy task: we operate across the world, in a wide variety of industries and our model needs to recognize food ranging from the Malay Nasi Goreng to the American fried chicken, and everything else in between.

We have come a long way - from long data collection time and training small AI models for very specific clients, we have now managed to generalise our approach and can now deploy AI models to almost any kitchen in the world in a matter of a couple of weeks. However, there are still many challenges ahead - today we present a top selection of items to our clients and they confirm the right one - our ambition is to become completely touch less. How can we make our models more confident and more accurate, that is the question!

The Data & Analytics team consists of 9 people (6 in Cluj and 3 in London) and is expected to continue to grow in the coming months. Roles range from data operation executives to data scientists.

We are investing in developing new products and services, and this role is responsible for leading data analysis for these innovations.

About the role:

As a Data Scientist Lead, you will be reporting to the Director of Data and Analytics and will have a wide range of responsibilities which includes:

• Lead and mentor a team of 2 Data Scientists
• Use your data skills to enhance the confidence and accuracy for our AI models
• Developing and refining complex queries and reports to help other team members execute their roles
• Performing ongoing data analysis to present back insights to clients
• Shape our data processes to optimize efficiency while reducing costs
• Imagine and deliver insightful analysis aiming at improving our user experience
• Monitor and manage the existing fleet of models in the field, and ensure new clients benefit from AI no less than 1 month after installation
• Produce and track key performance indicators
• Take on more complex data analysis problems

Requirements

Excellent numerical and analytical skills

• Solid knowledge in SQL, Python (pandas library particularly) required and willingness to learn more
• Experience with data formatting and cleaning, both for numeric and qualitative data
• Experience handling large data sets from 1,000s to 100,000s of rows
• Highly competent in using Excel (and willing to learn more)
• Comfortable using macros and formulas such as vlookups, sumifs, and pivot tables
• Experience with Mode Analytics a plus

Effective verbal and written communication skills

• Ability to adapt communication style to suit different audiences
• Ability to facilitate group discussions
• Attention to detail. Ability to develop accurate written materials
• Action oriented. Ability to follow-up on feedback to ensure positive outcomes
• Comfortable training others to develop data skills
• Ability to turn data into insights and present these insights effectively

Pro-active and critical thinker

• Ability to think out of the box and not afraid to speak up
• Ability to create new processes from scratch
• Ability to influence others to follow best practices
• Flexible and willing to take on new challenges as they emerge

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Life insurance
• Company part-funded health insurance
• Meal tickets - 20 Ron per working day
• 2 Wellness hours per month plus a 137 RON gross monthly wellness allowance or the option to swop the wellness allowance for a 7Card subscription
• Employee Assistance Programme - 24/7 helpline for your wellbeing
• 25 days of paid vacation time in addition to national holidays
• You will love what you do – waking up every day solving one of the biggest social problems of our generation
• Committed team members with broad experience who share a common passion to build a world class business