Data Scientist - iwocaPay Risk Squad

iwoca

Greater London

Hybrid

GBP 60,000 - 80,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working hours

Medical insurance from Vitality

Private GP service for you and depend0

25 days’ holiday per year

Birthday day off + extra days option

Sabbatical after four years

Employee equity incentive scheme

Parental leave and nursery tax benefit

Electric car and cycle to work schemes

Two company retreats per year

Learning & development budget

Access to learning platforms

Job summary

iwoca is seeking a Data Scientist to own credit models in the iwocaPay Risk Squad. You’ll shape risk modelling, own models end-to-end, and influence funding terms and product growth. The role sits in a small, growing team focused on automated decisioning and risk monitoring.

You’ll co-own the full credit modelling stack, collaborate on design, and prioritise work to deliver commercial impact. London-based hybrid work awaits.

Qualifications

Expertise in supervised machine learning on tabular data with end-to-end production modelling.
Strong statistical foundations in probability, uncertainty quantification and calibration.
Ability to scope problems, build infrastructure and ship models autonomously.
Data engineering capability – building pipelines and managing datasets alongside modelling.
AI fluency – using AI to build, automate, and accelerate substantive analytical work.
Clear communication – adapt technical detail for non-technical colleagues.

Responsibilities

Own credit modelling end-to-end within the Risk Squad.
Collaborate on model design and prioritisation.
Influence funding terms based on model output.
Develop pipelines, monitoring, and processes for the team.
Shape product risk capabilities and portfolio performance.

Skills

Supervised machine learning

Statistical foundations

Data engineering

AI fluency

Clear communication

Tools

Python

Job description

Hybrid in London, United Kingdom

We're looking for a Data Scientist to join the iwocaPay Risk Squad

You'll own credit models that decide who iwocaPay can safely fund and on what terms. The team is small, the product is growing, and you'll shape how risk modelling is built - not just maintain what exists.

The Company

Small businesses move fast. Opportunities often don't wait, and cash flow pressures can appear overnight. To keep going, and growing, SMEs need finance that’s as flexible and responsive as they are.

That's why we built iwoca. Our smart technology, data science and five-star customer service ensures business owners can act with the speed, confidence and control they need, exactly when it's needed.

We've already cleared the way for 100,000 businesses with more than £4 billion in funding. Our passionate team is driven to help even more SMEs succeed, through access to better finance and other services that make running a business easier. Our ultimate mission is to support one million SMEs in their defining moments, creating lasting impact for the communities and economies they drive.

The function

iwoca's Data Scientists specialise in supervised machine learning, statistical inference and exploratory data analysis, focusing on tabular and time series data. Our work emphasises quantitative predictions through the analysis of conditional probabilities and expectations, using medium-sized datasets.

The team

iwocaPay is iwoca's B2B Buy Now Pay Later product. The Risk Squad owns the automated credit decisioning and fraud prevention models that influence every lending decision the product makes. The squad also handles counterparty risk, portfolio-level strategy, and ongoing monitoring of losses, chargebacks, and segment performance.

The role

You'll co-own the full credit modelling stack with one other data scientist. You'll collaborate on model design, review each other's work, and choose what to prioritise. Your models directly control which small businesses get access to funding, on what terms, and how far the product can grow.

What you'll get out of it:

Complex problems to solve

Work on interesting, open modelling problems rather than maintenance. Improving how the model performs across segments, test more advanced approaches, and build models from scratch for new products.

Real influence

You own the models end to end, and your decisions carry commercial weight.

Room to develop

A small team on a growing product means broad remit, fast growth, and a say in how the team's pipelines, monitoring, and processes get built.

The Requirements

Expertise in supervised machine learning on tabular data, with experience building and iterating production models end to end (exploration through deployment and monitoring).
Strong statistical foundations in probability, uncertainty quantification, model calibration, and in reasoning about where a model is likely to be wrong.
Ability to work independently in a messy, early-stage environment – scoping problems, building infrastructure, and shipping models autonomously
Pragmatism about what 'good enough' looks like commercially, balanced with rigour on high-stakes models.
Data engineering capability – building pipelines and managing datasets alongside the modelling work.
AI fluency – using AI to build, automate, and accelerate substantive analytical and engineering work.
Clear communication – you can adapt technical detail for non-technical colleagues working in product, risk, and leadership.

Bonus

Experience with credit risk modelling or financial services lending.
Familiarity with transfer learning, domain adaptation, or techniques for combining datasets of different sizes and relevance.
Experience with non-linear models (gradient boosting, neural networks on tabular data) in production settings.
Python proficiency – it's what the team uses day to day.

The salary

We expect to pay from £60,000 - £80,000 for this role. But, we're open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly performance and salary reviews.

The culture

At iwoca, the best idea wins. We model our culture on independent thinking, challenging untested logic, and evidence-based decisions. We prioritise learning and growth, and give people the autonomy to develop in the direction that makes them most effective.

We're a tech company and believe in the power of AI to help us work faster and better. We provide the infrastructure where every iwocan always has access to the best models and where those models have access to all of our data. We will help our people to learn how to use and grow with the new tools available to them.

The offices

Offices in London, Leeds, Berlin, and Frankfurt with plenty of drinks and snacks.
Events and community-led groups, including running groups, padel, and monthly ping-pong and pool competitions.

The Benefits

Flexible working hours.
Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents.
25 days’ holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, the option buy up to ten more days or up to five, and unlimited unpaid leave.
A one-month, fully paid sabbatical after four years.
Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions for team members that need emotional or mental health support.
3% Pension contributions on total earnings.
An employee equity incentive scheme.
Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme.
Two company retreats a year: we've been to France, Italy, Spain, and further afield.

And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer: