Staff Data Scientist

WHO WE ARE:

Voted one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the Bay Area for 2020, Freedom Financial Network is a family of companies that takes a people-first approach to financial services, using technology to empower consumers to overcome debt and create a brighter financial future. The company was founded in 2002 by Brad Stroh and Andrew Housser on the belief that by staying committed to helping people, you can ensure better financial outcomes for both the customer and the business. This Heart/$ philosophy still guides the vision of our growing company, which has helped millions of people find solutions for their financial needs.

What began with 2 people in a spare bedroom has now rapidly expanded to a vibrant business that employs over 2000 employees (known internally as The Freedom Family) in two locations: San Mateo, CA and Tempe, AZ. When you visit either of our offices, youll understand why our employees have voted us the Best Place to Work for the last several years. Its a place where the Heart/$ philosophy continues to thrive, where we believe that success is only achieved by doing whats right for our customers, our employees, and our communities.

In order to create brighter futures for our clients, employees, and businesses, Freedom Financial Network holds itself to four core values that have grown out of our Heart + $ philosophy: to care for everyone around us, act with integrity every time, collaborate with everybody we work with, and get better at what we do every day.

THE OPPORTUNITY:

The Staff Data Scientist will be heavily involved in executing data analysis and modeling tasks for Freedom Financial Asset Management, the lending division of the Freedom Financial Network. The overarching mandate for the Sr. or Principal Data Scientist is to execute on analytic delivery and to develop new analytic capabilities for the companys mortgage initiative. The position will essentially be to partner with the mortgage division to execute a new analytic vision. Additionally, he/she may collaborate with other team members to assess and develop new analytic opportunities. This role will provide the candidate exposure and visibility into a strategic initiative for the company, and as such, will be a high impact role within the organization.

THE ROLE:

Some of the key responsibilities for the Analytic Scientist will include:

• Drive better understanding of FFN customers and prospects. Optimize customer experience and FFN value proposition by leveraging of GLM, supervised and unsupervised ML modeling solutions.
• Utilize your technical and analytical skills, while also gaining in-depth exposure to business strategy.
• Act as consultant to cross functional teams, advise how to best leverage predictive modeling and data in general.

Job Description for AI/ML Data Scientist

Responsibilities

• Optimize customer experience and FFN value proposition by leveraging supervised and unsupervised machine learning (ML) modeling solutions
• Challenge conventional thinking and work with stakeholders to identify and improve current methodologies and processes
• Develop new techniques and data that reveal insights hidden in numeric and textual data to drive better understanding of FFN customers and prospects
• Develop new or improved data products and solutions (such as lead flow optimization, propensity scoring, automated analytics, etc.) using AI/ML techniques and tools
• Partner with Engineering to deploy AI/ML solutions on our infrastructure

Qualifications and Experience

• Masters degree or PhD in a highly quantitative field (Computer Science, Machine Learning, Operational Research, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, Economics, etc.)
• 4+ years of experience working on AI/ML programs, projects, or related work
• Hands-on experience with clustering, classification, sentiment analysis, survival analysis, time series, ensembles, design of experiments, deep learning and NLP using open-source tools
• Experience in deploying ML algorithms and advanced modeling solutions on Data Science and ML infrastructures
• Expert knowledge in R/Python/SQL and at least one cloud-based AI/ML platform. Familiarity with UNIX/LINUX environments and BASH/shell scripting is desired
• Experience working with relational databases
• Strong organizational skills with an ability to manage multiple projects at any given time
• Strong verbal and written communication skills. In particular, be able to convert highly technical concepts and results into easily understood business value proposition

Preferred Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience working in the financial industry
• Experience with use of credit bureau data for modeling and analytics
• Tableau or other visualization tools experience is strongly preferred; knowledge of SAS is a plus
• Publications or presentations in recognized ML journals or conferences

CULTURAL FIT (Our Core Values):

• Care (for everyone): We show compassion and contribute to the well-being and growth of those around us. We only pursue products that improve the financial lives of our clients.
• Act with Integrity (every time): We take the right action even when it is hard and even when no one is watching. We treat our employees, clients, and communities the way they wish to be treated.
• Get Better (every day): We innovate, iterate, and improve each day. We are creative, take thoughtful risks, and ultimately learn and recover from failures.
• COLLABORATE (with everybody): We strive to work together toward a common purpose by proactively sharing information and inviting participation. We recognize the perspective of various groups and embrace healthy, constructive debate.

WHY JOIN THE FREEDOM FAMILY?

• Fast, continued growth theres a lot of opportunity for advancement
• Voted a Best Place to Work multiple times by our employees, most recently #1 in Phoenix for the 2nd year in a row!
• Benefits start within 30 days
• 401k with employer match
• 3 weeks paid vacation (increased with tenure)
• 9 paid holidays & 5 sick days
• Paid time off for volunteer work and on your birthday

This is your opportunity to be part of a growing company where dedicated professionals strive to help customers and each other succeed every day. If that sounds exciting to you, we want to talk to you. Apply today!

Attention Agencies & Search Firms: We do not accept unsolicited candidate resumes or profiles. Please do not reach out to anyone within Freedom Financial Network (FFN) to market your services or candidates. All inquiries should be directed to Talent Acquisition only. We reserve the right to hire any candidates sent unsolicited and will not pay any fees without a contract signed by FFNs Talent Acquisition leader. Thank you for your consideration.