Head of Data Science

About the Role

As the Head of Data Science, you will lead the strategic direction of data science for the next phase of Mission Lane’s growth by innovating on the application of machine learning to underwriting and other practical problems. You will report directly to the COO and lead one of the most knowledgeable and effective data science teams in fintech.

As a Head of Data Science, you’ll:

Drive financial and customer outcomes through machine learning and cross-functional collaboration with the entire business: marketing, acquisitions, fraud, portfolio management, collections, and more. You will develop the data science team to add new data sources, improve our modeling methodology, and practice sound risk management.

You are a person who:

• Understands how to operate a data science team to reach strategic business goals through talent development, cross-functional partnerships, and technical innovation
• Has experience applying data science to credit risk management
• Can make your team better every day because you can be clear about goals and the team’s purpose. You can execute through education, organization, and trust
• Has a deep understanding of the field of data science and can communicate a vision to your team on how the field can be applied to solve difficult, practical problems
• Has created, deployed, and managed experiments and models in production systems. You can genuinely speak to practitioners about the fundamental principles and challenges required to be successful in applied work
• Knows and teaches solid fundamentals with software engineering (test-driven development, code review, refactoring) and the PyData stack (numpy, scikit-learn, polars, etc.)
• Balances the demands of development speed with the need to meet compliance standards and documentation in a regulated industry