Staff Data Scientist

The role

You will design, build, and validate predictive models in Python to inform credit and lending decisions. You will partner with engineering to deploy models into the decisioning engine and measure their business impact.

What you will do

• Design, build, and validate predictive models in Python that inform credit and lending decisions
• Partner with engineering to deploy models into our decisioning engine and monitor them after launch
• Dig into the data to understand why a model behaves the way it does
• Measure and communicate the business impact of your work in dollars and percentages
• Work with Risk, Finance, Product, and other stakeholders to turn business questions into modeling problems and recommendations
• Evaluate and work with the data vendors and tools we use
• Set the technical bar for the team through code and model review, and mentor other analysts and data scientists

Required qualifications

• 8+ years of professional data scientist experience
• Strong Python skills and a record of building predictive models
• Statistical rigor, shown in at least one accomplishment on your resume
• Business impact you can quantify, with the dollars and percentages to show it
• Curiosity that goes past “here’s a cool model,” and the habit of asking why until you understand the context
• Clear communication with both technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience taking models from development to production

Nice to have

• Experience in credit and lending with fintech as a plus
• Experience working with third-party data vendors
• Experience at a small or scaling company where you owned work end to end
• Comfort moving between hands-on modeling, stakeholder partnership, and mentoring

Benefits

• Generous health, dental, and vision insurance coverage
• Employer-paid benefits including life, disability, and cost-containment resources
• Hybrid work arrangement
• Flexible vacation
• Company performance-based bonuses
• Paid parental leave
• Company equity in the form of stock options
• Education reimbursement program
• Relocation bonus to move to Austin
• Gym membership options through ClassPass or monthly reimbursement
• Lunchdrop stipend
• Paid parking

Before you apply

• Can only consider candidates who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents (green card holders)
• Unable to offer visa sponsorship of any kind, now or in the future
• All new hires must successfully pass a background check
• Do not use AI tools to generate or assist with your answers during interviews

About the company

Self Financial is a venture-backed, high-growth FinTech company with a mission to increase economic inclusion and financial resilience by empowering people to build credit and build savings.