Lead Data Scientist

JR United Kingdom; City Of London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A fast-growing fintech scaleup in London is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to spearhead the development of credit risk models. This high-impact role involves leading a team, driving lending strategy, and utilizing advanced data science techniques in a dynamic environment. Candidates should have 5-7 years experience, proficiency in Python, and strong analytical skills to excel in this position.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Benefits

Qualifications

• 5–7 years of experience in credit-related data science or decision science role.
• Experience with transformational and bureau data.
• Expertise in feature engineering and model evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of credit risk models.
• Collaborate with data engineering to deploy models into production.
• Mentor junior analysts/data scientists.

Skills

Machine learning model building

Analytical thinking

Proficiency in Python

Strong SQL skills

Tools

scikit-learn

XGBoost

LightGBM

Job description

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Lead Data Scientist, london (city of london)

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Client:

Location:

london (city of london), United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

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EU work permit required:

Yes

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Job Views:

3

Posted:

22.08.2025

Expiry Date:

06.10.2025

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Job Description:

Lead Decision/Data Scientist – Credit

London, UK – Hybrid

Up to £100,000 + Benefits

About the Company

We are working with a fast-growing fintech scaleup, who are on a mission to reshape access to financial services across underserved markets. With a strong focus on innovation, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making, the company is building impactful financial products tailored to real customer needs.

We’re looking for a Lead Decision Scientist, to lead the development, deployment, and ongoing optimisation of credit risk models. This is a high-impact position at the intersection of data science, risk, and business strategy. You’ll drive lending strategy, own the end-to-end modeling lifecycle, and guide a growing team of analysts as we scale.

This role is perfect for someone who thrives on experimentation, has a deep understanding of credit data, and enjoys working in a fast-paced environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of credit risk and affordability models using bureau, open banking, and behavioural data
• Own the full model lifecycle from data sourcing and feature engineering to validation, deployment, and monitoring
• Design and run A/B and champion/challenger tests to improve performance across approval rates, losses, and customer experience
• Analyse credit performance data to deliver insights that guide strategic decisions
• Mentor and support junior analysts/data scientists as the team expands
• Collaborate with data engineering to deploy models into production
• Work closely with stakeholders to define goals, communicate findings, and translate model outputs into business value

About You

You are an analytical thinker with a passion for using data to drive credit decisioning. You bring hands-on experience building machine learning models for consumer credit and understand the nuances of data preparation, feature selection, and model validation in high-stakes environments.

• 5–7 years of experience in a credit-related data science or decision science role
• Proficiency in Python and experience with libraries such as scikit-learn, XGBoost, or LightGBM
• Strong SQL skills for data extraction and transformation
• Experience working with transactional (e.g., Open Banking) and bureau data (e.g., Experian, Equifax)
• Expertise in feature engineering, handling class imbalance, and evaluating model performance using AUC, KS, precision/recall, etc.
• Understanding of model monitoring and techniques for identifying drift
• Experience with unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means, PCA, autoencoders) for fraud detection or segmentation
• Exposure to start-up or scale-up environments
• Familiarity with alternative data for credit scoring (e.g., device data, psychometrics)

If this role looks of interest, please apply here.

Please note - This role cannot offer sponsorship.