Staff Data Scientist

The Opportunity:

The Staff Data Scientist will be heavily involved in executing data analysis and modeling tasks for Freedom Financial Asset Management (FFAM), the lending division of the Freedom Financial Network (FFN). The overarching mandate for the Staff Data Scientist is to execute on analytic delivery and to develop new analytic capabilities for its lending businesses. The team member will partner with business leaders in FFAM and deliver frontline models and strategies for originations and account management decisions as well as deliver accurate and timely loss forecasts for pricing, financial planning and capital markets activity. Additionally, he/she may collaborate with other team members to assess and develop new analytic opportunities. This role is of high impact in the organization and will provide the candidate exposure and visibility into strategic initiatives for the company.

The Role:

• Drive better understanding of FFAM customers and prospects. Optimize customer experience and FFN/FFAM value proposition by leveraging supervised and unsupervised 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
• Build loss forecasts and related requests for partner groups. Improve upon current process
• Challenge conventional thinking and work with stakeholders to identify and improve current methodologies and processes
• Conduct Fair Lending Analysis on managed models
• Produce actionable portfolio reporting

Responsibilities:

• Optimize customer experience and FFN value proposition by leveraging supervised and unsupervised modeling solutions
• Build loss forecasts and related requests for partner groups. Improve upon current process
• 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
• Run Fair Lending Analysis on managed models
• Produce actionable portfolio reporting

Qualifications and Experience:

• Masters degree or PhD in a highly quantitative field (Computer Science, Machine Learning, Operational Research, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, Economics, etc.)
• 3+ years of experience working in a risk management organization at a financial industry - a big plus
• Hands-on experience with clustering, classification, sentiment analysis, survival analysis, time series, ensembles, and similar other methodologies
• Expert knowledge in R/Python/SQL. Familiarity with UNIX/LINUX environments shell scripting is a plus
• 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:

• 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

About Us:

Freedom Financial Network is a leading digital personal finance company, built to help people. We do what traditional banks dont: Put people first. We believe in treating people like humans, not account numbers. We help everyday people get on, and stay on, the path to a brighter financial future, with innovative technology and personalized support at every step. We help people control expenses, manage debt, save money, plan ahead, and make better financial decisions. By leveraging our proprietary data and analytics and artificial intelligence we offer solutions tailored for each step of a consumer's financial journey, including personal loans, home equity loans, help with debt, and even financial tools and education.

With 2,400 employees across California, Arizona and Texas, we have served more than 1 million customers, resolved more than $15 billion in consumer debt and originated $6.5 billion in loans over the course of our 20 years in business.

Driven by our core values, were passionate about supporting our communities and proudly awarded over $500,000 in grants distributed by the Freedom Foundation Fund and the Freedom Family Fund in 2021. We believe in a culture led by diversity, equity, and inclusion, and encourage our employees to bring their full selves to work every day. Our diversity-focused Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are open to all, whether a member of the ERG community or an ally of the group and we are a member of the Fintech Racial Equity Coalition to address and improve inequality in the fintech industry.

And finally, we take great pride in our achievements. This year we topped the list of Best Place to Work by the Phoenix Business Journal, were a top 100 Corporate Philanthropist by the San Francisco Business Times, a 2021 Most Admired Company and a Tech Company with the Best Company Culture by BestCompaniesAz, a 2021 Top Work Places winner by AZcentral and a BuiltIn Best Places to Work winner, to name a few.

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.