Sr. Data Scientist

Borrowell; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial technology company is looking for a Senior Data Scientist to influence product direction through data-driven insights. You will be responsible for owning high-impact machine learning initiatives, designing models, and communicating results to stakeholders. This role requires 5+ years of experience in data science and proficiency in Python and SQL. The ideal candidate will thrive in a collaborative, remote-first environment while being based in Toronto and will contribute to improving financial outcomes for Canadians.

Benefits

Comprehensive health benefits

Virtual health consultations

Maternity & parental leave top-up

Work-from-home reimbursement

Employee development benefit

Paid volunteer day

Flexible working hours

Flexible vacation policy

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience delivering data science and machine learning solutions.
• Hands-on experience designing, building, and iterating on ranking or recommendation models.
• Strong proficiency in Python for data analysis and feature engineering.
• Advanced SQL skills for complex queries across large datasets.
• Deep experience with supervised learning and model calibration.
• Strong background in A/B testing and metric design.
• Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Comfortable owning ambiguous problems and driving alignment.

Responsibilities

• Own high-impact ML initiatives for business KPIs.
• Translate business goals into ML problems and experimentation plans.
• Build, evaluate, and iterate on production models.
• Drive measurable business outcomes from model performance.
• Establish best practices for modeling and experimentation.

Skills

5+ years of experience in data science and machine learning

Hands-on experience with ranking and recommendation models

Strong proficiency in Python

Advanced SQL skills

Experience with supervised learning

Strong background in experimentation and A/B testing

Excellent communication skills

Ability to drive alignment across stakeholders

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

dbt

PySpark

SparkSQL

Job description

About Borrowell

At Borrowell, we’re on a mission to help Canadians feel confident about their money. We empower individuals to take control of their financial futures by providing the tools and insights needed to understand, build, and use their credit effectively.

1 in 10 Canadians use Borrowell for comprehensive credit monitoring and personalized insights. Our innovative services, including Credit Builder and rent reporting, help consumers build credit so they can unlock access to a wider range of financial products at more competitive rates. Additionally, we offer personalized financial product recommendations from Canada’s most trusted providers based on each member’s credit profile and financial goals.

Our team is diverse, inclusive, and driven by a shared passion for making a meaningful difference in the lives of Canadians. We pride ourselves on fostering a culture of collaboration, humility, and innovation. If you’re looking to join a company that’s transforming the financial landscape and empowering Canadians to achieve their financial aspirations, we invite you to explore career opportunities at Borrowell. Together, we can help Canadians feel confident about money.

About the Role

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will play a critical role in shaping and delivering Borrowell’s core machine learning capabilities and influencing product direction through data-driven recommendations. You will partner closely with Product, Business, Data, and Engineering leaders to design, build, and scale ML-driven systems that personalize the member experience, power our recommendation and ranking engines, and directly impact marketplace conversion and approval outcomes.

This is a hands‑on, product‑facing role with end‑to‑end ownership — from problem framing and model design to experimentation, measurement, and iteration in production. This role is expected to operate as a technical leader, setting modeling direction and raising the bar for data science rigor across the organization.

During your first year, you can expect to:

• Own high-impact ML initiatives technical and product trade‑off decisions – Lead the design and delivery of product ranking, intent prediction, and approval likelihood models that materially improve business KPIs.
• Translate strategy into models – Work with Product and Business stakeholders to convert complex business goals into well‑defined ML problems, success metrics, and experimentation plans.
• Build, evaluate, and iterate on production models – Develop robust features, train and calibrate models, and continuously improve performance through rigorous evaluation and A/B testing.
• Drive measurable business outcomes – Connect model performance to conversion, approval rates, revenue, and member engagement, and clearly communicate impact to stakeholders.
• Establish best practices for experimentation and modeling – Raise the bar on model evaluation, calibration, drift analysis, and offline/online alignment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience delivering data science and machine learning solutions with demonstrated ownership of high‑impact production models from problem definition through production and iteration.
• Hands‑on experience designing, building, and iterating on ranking, recommendation, or personalization models used in a production environment (e.g., offer ranking, next‑best‑action, feed ranking, eligibility routing).
• Strong proficiency in Python for data analysis, feature engineering, and modeling.
• Advanced SQL skills, including complex joins and analytical queries across large datasets.
• Deep experience with supervised learning, including handling class imbalance and model calibration.
• Strong background in experimentation and A/B testing, including metric design, offline/online evaluation and interpretation.
• Excellent communication skills — able to clearly explain complex models, trade‑offs, and impact to technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Comfortable owning ambiguous problems end‑to‑end and driving alignment across stakeholders in fast‑moving environments.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with end‑to‑end ML workflows, including deployment and post‑launch iteration.
• Experience working with cloud‑based data platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks).
• Familiarity with dbt, PySpark, SparkSQL, or other distributed data processing tools.
• Exposure to MLOps tools (e.g., MLflow, feature stores, monitoring frameworks).
• Experience working in fintech, credit, or consumer marketplaces.

The Opportunity

• The Opportunity - join and have a major impact at a growing company that is helping Canadians feel confident about money.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Health Benefits - medical, dental, vision, and paramedical health benefits for you and your family, with extra yearly coverage for psychotherapists and massage therapists
• Additional Health Benefits - virtual benefit offering that allows you to connect 24/7 with nurses, doctors and mental health professionals
• Maternity & Parental Leave Top‑up - available to new parents
• WFH Reimbursement - we ship you gear like a laptop, mouse, keyboard, and you can reimburse additional items to make your workplace better for you
• Employee Development Benefit - annual reimbursements on payments to help your learning
• Givewell Benefit - 1 paid volunteer day a year to give back to the community
• Flexibility - flexible working hours and a flexible vacation policy

We are remote‑first across Canada with an office in Toronto. This role requires you to attend in‑person meetings and team‑building events weekly.

At Borrowell, one of our core values and firm beliefs is that diversity makes us better. If you’re unsure about your qualifications for this position we’d still encourage you to apply. We’re looking for candidates who have experience but know that not everyone’s had a chance to demonstrate what they can do. What’s most important is that you have a growth mindset and care about helping people with their finances - an area in their lives that causes a lot of stress.

Please note that due to the sensitive nature of the work we do, clearing a credit and criminal record check is a condition of employment.

By submitting your application you consent to Borrowell's use and processing of your personal information in connection with your job application at Borrowell and its recruitment processes.

Borrowell encourages applications from candidates with differing abilities. Please let us know if you require accommodation at any stage in the selection process.