Lead Data Scientist

About the role

The Lead Data Scientist will drive end-to-end data science initiatives, transforming complex data into strategic decisions and automated solutions across Forward Financing. They will lead the design, development, and deployment of advanced statistical and machine learning models for various business use cases.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy advanced statistical and machine learning models for credit risk, pricing, collections, fraud, and other high-impact business use cases.
• Partner with cross-functional teams including Portfolio Strategy, Engineering, Product, Underwriting, Sales, and Collections to integrate models into applications.
• Proactively identify and solve problems in critical business areas.
• Define and set standards for model development, code quality, and documentation; guide technical design decisions across the team.
• Communicate complex technical concepts and business implications to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Build and maintain production machine learning pipelines and monitoring systems to ensure models are reliable, scalable, and continuously improving.

Requirements

• 8+ years of hands-on model development and deployment experience using advanced statistical and machine learning techniques.
• Expertise in Python, SQL, and Git.
• Experience with real-time models, decisioning engines, and production-grade machine learning pipelines.
• Experience deploying and managing models within a cloud platform (AWS, Sagemaker).
• Strong foundation in statistics and machine learning, and knowledge of experimental design.
• Excellent project management and communication skills.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving ability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Financial/Apfied Math, Operations Research, Economics, and/or Statistics.
• Masters/PhD is a plus.

Skills

• Cloud data warehouses (e.g. Snowflake, Databricks)
• Arize
• Metaflow
• Sagemaker
• Decision engines (e.g. Taktile)
• Feature stores (e.g. Tecton)

Benefits

• Annual Salary: $160,000 - $220,000 USD
• Annual Bonus: Up to 12% annual bonus

Pay

Annual Salary: $160,000 - $220,000 USD

Schedule

Flexible work schedule with the option to work from home or in the office.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Commuter benefits
• Flexible time-off policy
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k) match for US employees
• Wellness reimbursement
• Volunteering days
• Annual professional development budget
• Charitable donation match

Equal Opportunity Employer

Forward Financing is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to fostering a fair and inclusive culture built on a foundation of high performance and exceptional customer experience. We are dedicated to reducing biases and ensuring the right people are in the right jobs to contribute to our mission.