Data Scientist Team Lead

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands.

We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth.

We work with the world's most valuable brands and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise.

Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.

For more information, visit WPP.com.

Why we're hiring:

Open Intelligence (OI) is one of WPP’s most strategic bets - a flagship data and AI initiative at the intersection of machine learning, advertising technology, and audience insight, built to power the next generation of media intelligence. Operating across the US and UK and expanding across EMEA and APAC, OI runs at true global scale.

To lead the next phase of development at the embedding and applied-AI layer of OI, we are hiring a Data Science Team Lead in Copenhagen. You will guide a small, sharp team building critical capabilities - from multimodal embedding spaces and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to agentic tools and UIs - that make the rest of OI’s AI ecosystem thrive.

What you'll be doing:

• Line-manage and grow the team: Drive 1:1s, recruitment, performance, mentorship, and day-to-day technical and team direction.
• Own technical architecture & direction: Lead the technical vision and design for well-distributed multimodal embedding spaces (text, image, video), MCP server tooling, and user-facing chat agents + UI.
• Translate strategy into action: Take high-level, ambiguous direction from leadership and stakeholders, shape it into a clear narrative, and break it down into concrete, well-scoped projects.
• Uphold a high engineering bar: Set and maintain high standards for clean architecture, system design, and testable code while keeping delivery pragmatic and incremental.
• Communicate impact: Clearly articulate the team’s work, architectural decisions, and business value upward to leadership and across the wider Open Intelligence organization.
• Stay hands-on: Keep close enough to the code and technical stack to make sound architectural calls, conduct code reviews, and unblock the team.

Who you'll be working with:

You’ll report directly to the Director of Data Science, Open Intelligence, and join our vibrant Copenhagen office of ~50 people, including 14+ data scientists and a strong engineering group.

We operate fluidly across closely collaborating teams. Our culture is flat, high-trust, and fast-moving: strong opinions loosely held, teamwork over ego, aiming high, and having fun along the way.

What you'll need:

• Solid understanding of software architecture, system design, clean code principles, and testability. (We lean toward an engineering-minded lead, but strongly technical Data Scientists or ML Engineers with engineering instincts are very welcome).
• Deep proficiency in Python and cloud experience (ideally GCP — Vertex AI, Cloud Run, BigQuery).
• Hands-on experience with embeddings, vector search, LLM tooling, and agentic workflows (experience with MCP / Model Context Protocol is a strong plus).
• Demonstrated ability to untangle ambiguity and turn broad goals into shipped, high-quality production systems.
• Ability to shape complex technical concepts into compelling, easy-to-understand storylines for technical and non-technical stakeholders alike.

Note: Direct people-leadership experience is a plus, but not a mandatory requirement if you have strong technical/project leadership instincts.

Success attributes:

• You untangle ambiguity rather than being intimidated by it.
• Pragmatic perfectionist: high standards, incremental delivery.
• Low ego, high trust; you make the people around you better.
• Thrive in a fast-paced, flat, entrepreneurial environment.

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

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