Director, Retail Risk Modeling

RBC; Toronto; On-site; CAD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

A major banking institution in Toronto is seeking a Director in Retail Risk Modeling to lead a team of data scientists. You will be responsible for developing credit risk models to support various lending business lines, oversee model implementation, and present findings to stakeholders. The ideal candidate has over 6 years of experience, a strong technical background in data analysis and machine learning, and excellent leadership skills. This is a full-time position within a collaborative environment focused on performance and growth.

Benefits

Comprehensive Total Rewards Program including bonuses

Opportunities for coaching and development

Agile and high-performing team environment

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant work experience.
• Experience in people management.
• Fluency in SQL and big data technologies.
• Strong coding skills in Python for automation.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of data scientists with vision and adaptability.
• Manage stakeholders and own model portfolios.
• Develop and maintain credit risk models.
• Present results to non-technical stakeholders.

Skills

Data analysis

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

Statistical methods

Machine learning

Education

Undergraduate degree in relevant technical field

Tools

SQL

Python

Hadoop

GitHub

Job description

Job Description

What is the opportunity?

Join an inclusive, high performing team that is driving outsized results and impact through data! We sit at the intersection of decades of data, high powered data infrastructure, continuous research, and interesting problems across multiple lines of business. We are in need of smart team players who are passionate about turning data into insights, and enjoy collaborating with partners to build and govern models that enable a multi-billion dollar loan portfolio.

Retail Risk Modeling specializes in leveraging large datasets to build models (statistical & machine learning based) to profitably grow loan originations by balancing risk, pricing, operational efficiency, and customer impact. These models are implemented in industry leading systems that enable real-time decision making for millions of customers globally.

As a Director on the team, you are a natural leader with prior experience fostering and mentoring a high performing team of data scientists. You and your team will analyze, design, and implement solutions to support real-time decision making for RBC’s lending business lines (credit cards, home equity financing, various unsecured loans, automotive financing, small business). You bring to the table a love of collaborative data science, enjoy taking on challenging business problems, and excel at taking complex information and explaining it in simple terms. You will be responsible for the end-to-end development of models from data extraction to its implementation while maintaining continuous interaction with key stakeholders within Personal and Commercial Banking.

What will you do?

• Lead a team of high performing data scientists with vision, compassion, and adaptability
• Provide effective challenge and drive continuous research
• Build and foster an environment of diversity, trust, fun, and excellence
• Manage stakeholders, build trust, and take ownership over entire portfoliosSupport talent development and foster career growth for team members
• Develop and maintain credit risk models that support the credit decisions related to RBC’s various lending business lines across all risk spectrums (from prime to subprime).
• Extract, clean, validate, and analyze usable data from multiple data sources/providers to quantify borrower behavioral patterns and market dynamics.
• Design and construct prediction systems through the usage of machine learning tools and advanced statistics to select features, create and optimize classifiers or regression models.
• Present results in a clear and concise manner for non-technical stakeholders and comprehensive model documentation.
• Resolve issues raised by independent validation, Internal Audit and ongoing model monitoring.
• Shepherd existing models through production and own documentation related to existing models.

What do you need to succeed?

We want data scientists that own the end-to-end lifecycle of a model – you must be comfortable sourcing and exploring data, researching statistical and machine learning techniques, translating regulatory requirements into models, and curious about monitoring and continuous improvement of your models. Excellent communication skills are a must – you must be very comfortable taking high complex ideas and distilling them into simple terms. It is not enough just to be a model developer – success in the role means working with multiple stakeholders across the bank, and transforming their vision into outcomes that can be driven by data. Additionally, as a Director on the team, you will be looked‑up to as a leader and must contribute to the culture in a meaningful way, through talent development, mentoring & coaching, fostering inclusion and diversity, and creating a culture of fun!

Must-have:

• Undergraduate degree in computer science, finance, mathematics, statistics, engineering, or an equivalent technical field
• 6+ years of relevant work experience
• Prior experience with people management
• Hands‑on experience with large datasets (ingestion, processing, merging and aggregation of data), with fluency in both SQL and big data/cloud technologies (Hadoop, PySpark, S3).
• Strong SQL and Python coding skills to support automation and efficient end-to-end model scoring/implementation.
• Understanding of advanced statistical methods and machine learning techniques for classification and regression tasks.
• Experience in code sharing and version control solutions (GitHub).
• Ability to work with UNIX command line.
• Excellent English-language verbal and written communication skills

Nice to have:

• Master degree in computer science, finance, mathematics, statistics, or engineering.
• Knowledge of C++ and prior development of large-scale simulation.
• Knowledge of GenAI use cases in retail lending.
• Knowledge of other programming languages such as R, Java, Scala, or SAS.
• Prior model development experiences for IFRS9, capital modelling, or other enterprise risk experience
• Experience with recruiting

What’s in it for you?

We thrive on the challenge to be our best, thinking progressively to keep growing, and working together to deliver trusted advice to help our clients thrive and communities prosper. We care about each other, reaching our potential, making a difference to our communities, and achieving success that is mutual.

• A comprehensive Total Rewards Program including bonuses and flexible benefits
• Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities
• Ability to make a difference and lasting impact
• Work in an agile, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team
• The opportunity to interface with executives from many different parts of the organization

Job Skills

Additional Job Details

Address: RBC WATERPARK PLACE, 88 QUEENS QUAY W:TORONTO

City: Toronto

Country: Canada

Work hours/week: 37.5

Employment Type: Full time

Platform: GROUP RISK MANAGEMENT

Job Type: Regular

Pay Type: Salaried

Posted Date: 2025-07-22

Application Deadline: 2026-01-17

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above

Inclusion and Equal Opportunity Employment

At RBC, we believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.

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