Senior Director, Head of Risk Data Science
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Job Location:
San Francisco, CA - USA
Monthly Salary:
Not Disclosed
Posted on:
10 days ago
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Job Summary
The Role: Vision & Impact
SoFi is seeking an inspirational and deeply experienced Senior Director to lead and define the strategic direction of our Risk Data Science function. Reporting to the Chief Credit Officer this executive role will lead the development deployment and governance of credit decisioning models - from underwriting and portfolio management to loss mitigation.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader and a visionary who can transition the team from traditional modeling to next-generation machine learning platforms leveraging emerging data sources (e.g. cash flow alternative bureaus) to significantly improve underwriting performance reduce losses and ensure rigorous adherence to Model Risk Management (MRM) standards. This role requires exceptional organizational leadership an ability to influence executive stakeholders and proven success in delivering complex models into a regulated production environment.
What Youll Do (Key Responsibilities)
- Strategic Leadership & Vision:
- Define and Champion Strategy: Develop and articulate the 1-3 year roadmap for Risk Data Science aligning all priorities with the broader Credit Risk and Business Unit objectives.
- Drive Next-Generation Capabilities: Incorporate industry trends and advanced techniques (NLP Graph Mining LLMs Deep Learning) to solve complex high-impact risk problems where established principles may not fully apply.
- Talent and Team Development: Lead the current team of high-performing Staff and Senior Data Scientists. Recruit mentor and foster talent through deliberate interactions succession planning and creating a high-accountability low-ego culture.
- Execution & Delivery:
- Underwriting Excellence: Directly oversee the development and deployment of Next Generation Underwriting models designed to increase origination while maintaining loss guardrails.
- Loss Mitigation & Collections: Drive the successful build-out and implementation of new Collection and Entry Rate Models to optimize outreach strategies and reduce losses.
- Loss Forecasting & Compliance: Lead the development of Loss Forecasting and CECL models ensuring they align with industry practices and meet all regulatory requirements for the firms balance sheet and reserve calculations.
- Alternative Data Strategy: Spearhead the evaluation and integration of alternative data sources (tri-bureau LexisNexis cash flow data) to enhance predictive power across all credit products.
- Governance Compliance and Cross-Functional Influence:
- Model Risk Management (MRM): Act as the primary owner for all models in the portfolio ensuring robust documentation monitoring and successfully navigating the 2nd Line of Defense (2LOD) review and approval process (SR 11-7 familiarity is mandatory).
- Stakeholder Alignment: Interact and negotiate with senior management executives (CCO CFO Product Leads) and external stakeholders to reconcile competing views and drive critical high-impact business decisions.
- Automation and Efficiency: Lead efforts to automate model monitoring and governance processes (ModelOps) to create scalable and auditable infrastructure.
What Youll Need
- Experience: 12 years of progressive experience in credit risk modeling and data science within a regulated financial institution (FinTech Bank or similar) with at least 7 years in a senior leadership/management role (managing managers and/or technical leads).
- Education: Masters or Ph.D. degree in a quantitative field (Statistics Computer Science Engineering Operations Research etc.).
- Technical Acumen: Deep expertise in advanced statistical and machine learning modeling techniques (e.g. Gradient Boosting Deep Learning Causal Inference).
- Regulatory Knowledge: Detailed working knowledge of model risk management standards (e.g. SR 11-7) and the ability to operate within a highly regulated environment.
- Tools & Platforms: Expert-level proficiency in Python (PySpark scikit-learn TensorFlow/PyTorch) and SQL/data warehouse technologies (e.g. Snowflake Hive). Familiarity with modern MLOps platforms and cloud computing (AWS).
- Communication: Exceptional executive presence and the ability to distill highly complex analytical concepts into clear concise and compelling narratives for non-technical leadership.
Why Youll Love It Here
You will have the autonomy to build the future of risk modeling at a high-growth innovative financial technology company. Your contributions will directly impact the financial health of millions of members.
Required Experience:
Exec
Key Skills
- Crisis Management
- Marketing
- Public Relations
- Fundraising
- Media Relations
- Constant Contact
- Strategic Planning
- Social Media Management
- Team Management
- Public Speaking
- Wordpress
- Writing Skills
About Company
Why do 10M+ members trust SoFi? Financial solutions for school, marriage, starting a family, home buying, retirement, or whatever’s next. Member FDIC.
