Director of Data Science, Credit Risk & Acquisition (Remote)

Harnham; New York (NY); Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote within the United States

Equity

Leadership role in established DS team

Exposure to senior leadership

Job summary

Harnham is partnered with a high-growth fintech business seeking an experienced Director of Data Science to lead credit acquisition modeling and drive the data-driven lending strategy. You will oversee a team of data scientists, shape modeling approaches and align analytics with commercial goals.

The role emphasizes leadership, strategic ownership, and collaboration with Credit Risk, Product and Engineering to optimize portfolio profitability and decisioning at scale.

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing and developing teams of Data Scientists.
• Strong background in credit risk modeling, ideally within consumer lending, credit cards or fintech.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of Data Scientists, driving technical excellence and professional development.
• Own the strategic direction of credit acquisition modeling, balancing approval rates, credit losses and portfolio profitability.
• Oversee the development, deployment and ongoing monitoring of predictive models used in lending decisions.
• Provide technical oversight through Python code reviews, model evaluation and methodological guidance.
• Partner with senior stakeholders across Credit Risk, Product and Engineering to translate business objectives into modeling strategies.
• Establish best practices around model performance, experimentation, governance and production deployment.
• Identify opportunities to improve credit decisioning through advanced analytics and machine learning.

Skills

Leadership

Team management

Stakeholder management

Commercial acumen

Communication

Credit risk modeling

Production deployment

Tools

Python

scikit-learn

XGBoost

LightGBM

Job description

Harnham is partnered with a high-growth fintech business seeking an experienced Director of Data Science to lead credit acquisition modeling and drive the data-driven lending strategy. You will oversee a team of data scientists, shape modeling approaches and align analytics with commercial goals.

The role emphasizes leadership, strategic ownership, and collaboration with Credit Risk, Product and Engineering to optimize portfolio profitability and decisioning at scale.