Data Scientist

Parafin; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 235,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

Medical, dental & vision insurance

Work from home flexibility

Unlimited PTO

Commuter benefits

Free lunches

Paid parental leave

401(k)

Employee assistance program

Job summary

Parafin is seeking a Data Scientist based in San Francisco, California. In this pivotal role, you will lead end-to-end projects, apply advanced methods, and have a significant impact on Parafin's trajectory. You will work collaboratively across teams and develop expertise in specific areas as priorities evolve.

Offering a competitive salary of $200k – $235k, equity grants, and comprehensive benefits including unlimited PTO and flexible work options, this position aims to attract exceptional talent dedicated to driving impact.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or Data Science.
• Ability to approach data analysis with a critical viewpoint.
• Strong engineering mindset with reliable coding practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead projects from end to end, applying new methods effectively.
• Collaboratively develop solutions with product, engineering, and risk teams.
• Build and ship ML models to forecast behaviors and inform pricing.

Skills

Statistical Reasoning

Business Acumen

Engineering Mindset

Leadership and Collaboration

Focused Execution

AI Tool Fluency

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related fields

Job description

Our Work

Our mission is to help Parafin succeed by leveraging the vast data that powers our platform. Our team partners closely with leaders across the company to drive impact. This role's scope includes:

Growth

• Designing experiments that navigate the tradeoff between growth and risk — expanding access to capital while keeping the portfolio healthy
• Studying the full merchant lifecycle — first offer, repayment, repeat capital — to find where we can responsibly extend more
• Modeling how a prospective partner's portfolio would perform on our platform, so we can size new opportunities before launching

Portfolio Monitoring & Servicing

• Building and shipping ML models (XGBoost and friends) that forecast merchant repayment behavior — from feature engineering through production deployment — to inform how we price and size offers
• Measuring whether our servicing actually works — how much balance we recover after reaching out to a struggling merchant, and what interventions move the needle

Infrastructure

• Building the data pipelines that power every analysis, dashboard, and ML model across the company
• Automating processes — lien filings, KYC checks, fraud screens — using APIs, ML, and LLMs
• Building internal tools — Streamlit apps, dashboards, Slack bots — that the rest of the company uses every day

Beyond these focus areas, our team helps expand our impact by recruiting exceptional talent, improving our tools, and supporting each other through regular seminars and project reviews.

About You

We are looking for a Data Scientist who can take on challenging projects across the organization, develop expertise in specific business areas, and work collaboratively with product, engineering, and risk teams.

Your Impact

You will make an outsized impact on Parafin's trajectory by leading projects from end to end. You will quickly learn new methods, apply them across diverse areas of the business, and implement them robustly. You will develop expertise in specific areas of the business but may tackle projects across domains as our priorities evolve.

Your Background and Skills

Bachelor's Degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science (or related fields). We believe the most effective data scientists bring the following skills to their work:

• Statistical Reasoning
  • Approach data analysis with a critical, intellectually honest eye
  • Design concise metrics that guide decision making
  • Use robust causal inference methods
  • Develop valid and predictive machine learning models
• Business Acumen
  • Identify and effectively prioritize business problems
  • Solve business problems using appropriate data science techniques
  • Anticipate the impact of your work on our financial performance, customers, and compliance obligations
• Engineering Mindset
  • Write legible, reliable, and tested code
  • Build or source tools to boost the team's efficiency
  • Contribute to model and data infrastructure design
• Leadership and Collaboration
  • Model Parafin's values of efficiency, intellectual honesty, accountability, and empathy
  • Build trusted relationships with stakeholders
  • Document work, seek feedback, and share learnings proactively
  • Mentor other DS members on the team
  • Management experience, a plus!
• Focused Execution
  • Prioritize high-impact use of your time
  • Scope projects rigorously
  • Act with urgency
• AI Tool Fluency
  • Rapidly learn and adopt emerging AI tools and workflows to accelerate analysis
  • Critically evaluate AI-generated outputs for accuracy and reliability

What We Offer

• Salary: $200k – $235k (Senior/Staff Level: $235k – $330k+)
• Equity grant
• Medical, dental & vision insurance
• Work from home flexibility
• Unlimited PTO
• Commuter benefits
• Free lunches
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k)
• Employee assistance program

If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please contact us.