Senior Team Leader - Operations Research

About this role

As the Senior Team Lead for Data Science - Logistics Estimations, you will be the strategic leader responsible for maximizing the impact of our predictive engine on the global delivery network. Your primary focus will be providing vision, strategic oversight, and leadership to a fully experienced team of Data Scientists specializing in Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) prediction and other critical logistics estimations.

This is a strategic leadership role where your focus is on defining data science solutions, collaborating on the roadmap, driving business outcomes, and expertly managing and developing your team. Experience in model development and deployment is essential for providing effective technical guidance and strategy to the team.

Your core mission is to elevate the accuracy of pre-purchase and post-purchase estimated delivery time models by translating business performance challenges into data science solutions.

Location: Berlin office with 3 days in the office and 2 days working from home

Reporting to: Data Science Manager

The Key Ingredients of the role

Strategic Leadership & Outcome Ownership (Approx. 75%)

• Team Leadership & People Management: Lead, manage, and scale a high-performing team of Data Scientists through mentorship, coaching, and performance management. Foster a collaborative and results-driven team culture.
• Drive Strategic Solutions: Own the team's contribution to defining logistics estimation solutions, ensuring direct alignment with critical company objectives and the broader business strategy. Champion data science innovation ideas and partner closely with Product Management (PM) to prioritize work based on business opportunities. Manage dependencies across the cross-functional team and collaborate with Machine Learning (ML) and Backend Engineers, especially for post-purchase ETA implementation. Communicate the team's direction and impact to senior stakeholders.
• Drive Business Impact: Take ownership of key logistics KPIs, particularly overall ETA accuracy across the customer journey. Guide the team's focus on the highest-value initiatives and ensure data science moves in a data-driven direction. Work closely with the Product Manager to advise and influence the strategic prioritization of work.
• Business Root Cause Analysis (RCA) & Solution Strategy: Drive deep analysis to uncover the root causes and underlying business drivers of accuracy gaps in ETA models, including diagnosing operational friction points (e.g., courier re-assignments, restaurant preparation delays) that impact model performance.
• Strategic Planning: Translate RCA findings into concrete, actionable plans and conceptual designs for incorporating new features or models to mitigate these business-driven inaccuracies.
• Stakeholder Communication: Serve as the primary interface between the Data Science team and the wider audience (Product, Operations, Engineering). Translate complex data insights and machine learning concepts into clear, actionable business insights for non-technical audiences.

Technical Guidance & Conceptual Design (Approx. 25%)

• Conceptual Model Design: Focus on the conceptual design and validation strategy for new predictive features and models. Define what the model needs to achieve and how it should be validated.
• Technical Guidance & Review: Serve as the senior technical expert, guiding architectural decisions for prediction models and maintaining high standards through rigorous design discussions and model reviews.
• MLE Partnership: Partner closely with Machine Learning Engineers (MLEs), who own the deployment and scaling processes, to transition robust model designs and thoroughly documented algorithmic logic for production implementation.
• Insight Generation: Guide the team in deep-dive analysis of large-scale geospatial and real-time data to translate findings into actionable modeling recommendations.

What You'll Bring to the Table

• A Master's degree or PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.
• Proven, extensive experience in leadership and people management, with a demonstrated ability to mentor, guide, and develop Data Scientists.
• Prior hands‑on experience developing, deploying, and maintaining machine learning models in a corporate environment. This experience is crucial for providing effective strategic and architectural guidance.
• Advanced conceptual proficiency in data science and machine learning methodologies, ideally with experience in logistics, geospatial analysis, and ETA prediction or routing problems. Experience with deep learning is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in root‑cause analysis of complex production model performance issues and the ability to translate those findings into effective business and technical solutions.
• Strong understanding of the model lifecycle and best practices, including testing, code reviews, and monitoring.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence technical peers and non-technical business leaders.

Inclusion, Diversity & Belonging

No matter who you are, what you look like, who you love, or where you are from, you can find your place at Just Eat Takeaway.com. We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture, encouraging diversity of people and thinking, in which all employees feel they truly belong and can bring their most colourful selves to work every day.