Principal – Data Science

Ally; Detroit (MI); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

401K with match

Employee stock purchase plan

Job summary

Ally Financial seeks a data scientist for the Auto Finance team to deliver data products, mentor analytics professionals, and surface insights that drive business strategy. Expect collaboration across analytics and data science teams to scale models and data pipelines.

The role emphasizes measurable outcomes, strong communication, and the ability to translate data discoveries into business decisions while contributing to risk-aware, cloud-enabled analytics initiatives.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Bachelor's degree in quantitative/technical discipline or equivalent practical experience.
• Significant experience (5+ years) in analytics, data science, machine learning, or applied statistics with a track record of independently delivering production-impacting work and measurable business impact.
• Domain experience in financial services (preferably auto lending) focused on data/statistical analysis, credit risk, pricing, fraud, or portfolio optimization preferred.
• Strong working knowledge of machine learning algorithms, AWS and cloud development tools, and Data Science/Analytics/BI methodologies.
• Advanced skills in SQL, Python (R or SAS a plus); strong skills in exploratory data analysis, statistical model development, validation/testing, and operation (including performance monitoring).
• Experience with Git/source control (branching, pull requests, code reviews) preferred.
• Advanced knowledge of statistics and experiment design.
• Ability to design, execute, and interpret controlled experiments with focus on translating findings into business decisions.

Responsibilities

• Partner with strategy, operations, and business leaders to transform ambiguous questions into data-driven solutions that drive measurable outcomes.
• Communicate findings and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical audiences and influence decision-making at multiple levels by making holistic recommendations with considerations for risks, tradeoffs, and blind spots.
• Design, execute, and interpret experiments and analyses to evaluate business strategy changes and quantify impact.
• Build robust, scalable models and analytical solutions; document thoroughly; and implement automated monitoring aligned with Model Risk Management standards.
• Benchmark challenger models and perform rigorous validation (back testing, stability, fairness, and drift) with monitoring and clear acceptance criteria.
• Productionize models and analytics pipelines in collaboration with data and implementation teams, ensuring reliability, observability, and reproducibility.
• Create strong partnerships with key partners, understand organizational goals, and shape roadmaps to support achieving them.
• Establish and promote best practices in modeling, code quality, and experimentation; mentor via code reviews and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Machine learning

AWS

Cloud tools

SQL

Python

R

SAS

Git

Statistics

Experiment design

Education

Bachelor's degree in quantitative/technical discipline

Master's degree in quantitative/technical discipline

Tools

Power BI

Git

SAS

Job description

Lewisville, TX

Detroit, MI

Full time

The Opportunity

As a leader in digital financial services, our customer and employee experiences run on data. We depend on the Ally analytics community to fuel these journeys and to help nearly 10,000 leaders and employees make countless data-driven decisions every day. Our analytics community has hundreds of analytics professionals across Ally in communities focused on business analytics, data science, R, Python, Power BI and more and continues to grow every day. As you read this, our Technology and Digital organization is deploying our new Cloud Computing platform to accelerate and expand our digital capability.

We're looking for a passionate Data Scientist with great communication skills for our Auto Finance team. This person will conduct complex analytics projects, studies and experiments, and create data products to surface insights and drive business strategy related to Servicing. They will also mentor developing analytics professionals and connect with other analytics and data science teams to build capability. Do you have a focus on measurable business outcomes, strong analytical skills, and a desire to make an impact? If you are a creative and critical thinker, storyteller, learner and innovator and want to work in an environment focused on using data science and big data tech, keep reading.

The Work Itself

In this role, you'll help us make data-driven decisions by:

• Partner with strategy, operations, and business leaders to transform ambiguous questions into data-driven solutions that drive measurable outcomes.
• Communicate findings and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical audiences and influence decision-making at multiple levels by making holistic recommendations with considerations for risks, tradeoffs, and blind spots.
• Design, execute, and interpret experiments and analyses to evaluate business strategy changes and quantify impact.
• Build robust, scalable models and analytical solutions; document thoroughly; and implement automated monitoring aligned with Model Risk Management standards.
• Benchmark challenger models and perform rigorous validation (back testing, stability, fairness, and drift) with monitoring and clear acceptance criteria.
• Productionize models and analytics pipelines in collaboration with data and implementation teams, ensuring reliability, observability, and reproducibility.
• Build reliable, documented data pipelines and features from enterprise sources; transform and curate datasets to support analysis, ad-hoc exploration, and model development.
• Develop high-quality data assets: feature stores, standardized metrics definitions, actionable dashboards, and monitoring for model and data quality.
• Own end-to-end project delivery: define problem statements, create project plans, align stakeholders, manage risks, and deliver outcomes on time.
• Manage projects of various size/complexity, day-to-day tasks, and priorities independently.
• Create strong partnerships with key partners, understand organizational goals, and shape roadmaps to support achieving them.
• Establish and promote best practices in modeling, code quality, and experimentation; mentor via code reviews and knowledge sharing (without direct reports).
• Proactively identify and learn new data sources, tools, methodologies, and approaches to improve performance and accelerate delivery.

The Qualifications We're Looking For

Minimum Qualifications:

• 7+ years of relevant experience
• Bachelor's degree in quantitative/technical discipline (Math, Computer Science, Data Science/Analytics, Applied Statistics, etc.) or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Significant experience (5+ years) in analytics, data science, machine learning, or applied statistics with a track record of independently delivering production-impacting work and measurable business impact.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in quantitative/technical discipline (Math, Computer Science, Data Science/Analytics, Applied Statistics, etc.) or equivalent practical experience.
• Domain experience in financial services (preferably auto lending) focused on data/statistical analysis, credit risk, pricing, fraud, or portfolio optimization preferred.
• Strong working knowledge of machine learning algorithms, AWS and cloud development tools, and Data Science/Analytics/BI methodologies.
• Advanced skills in SQL, Python (R or SAS a plus); strong skills in exploratory data analysis, statistical model development, validation/testing, and operation (including performance monitoring).
• Experience with Git/source control (branching, pull requests, code reviews) preferred.
• Advanced knowledge of statistics and experiment design.
• Ability to design, execute, and interpret controlled experiments with focus on translating findings into business decisions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to tailor narratives and technical details to executives, cross-functional partners, and engineering audiences.
• Experience working with (and ability to influence) matrix partners.
• Learning agility to rapidly understand a business, its context, and its value stream.
• Proactive seeking of answers and takes ownership from problem framing through delivery; doesn’t wait for direction to move work forward.
• Works independently end-to-end and collaborates with partners as needed; adaptable to changing priorities and project needs.
• Comfort working with ambiguous or sparse data; ability to design pragmatic solutions with imperfect inputs.
• Outstanding analytical and problem-solving skills; critical thinker with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to work both independently and collaborate as needed as project demands shift and change.

#LI-Hybrid

#DFS

How We'll Have Your Back

Ally's compensation program offers market-competitive base pay and pay-for-performance incentives (bonuses) based on achieving personal and company goals. Our Total Rewards program includes industry-leading compensation and benefits plus additional incentives that are designed to meet your needs and those of your family so you can get the most out of your career and your life, including:

• Time Away: Program starts at 20 paid time off days in addition to 11 paid holidays and 8 hours of volunteer time off yearly (time off days are prorated based on start date and program varies based on full or part-time status and management level).
• Planning for the Future: plan for the near and long term with an industry-leading 401K retirement savings plan with matching and company contributions, student loan pay downs and 529 educational save up assistance programs, tuition reimbursement, employee stock purchase plan, and financial learning center and financial coach access.
• Supporting your Health & Well-being: flexible health and insurance options including medical, dental and vision, employee, spouse and child life insurance, short- and long-term disability, pre-tax Health Savings Account with employer contributions, Healthcare FSA, critical illness, accident & hospital indemnity insurance, and a total well-being program that helps you and your family stay on track physically, socially, emotionally, and financially.
• Building a Family: adoption, surrogacy and fertility assistance as well as paid parental and caregiver leave, Dependent Day Care FSA back-up child and adult/elder care days and childcare discounts.
• Work-Life Integration: other benefits including Mentally Fit Employee Assistance Program, subsidized and discounted Weight Watchers program and other employee discount programs.
• Other Compensations: depending on the role for which you are considered, you may be eligible for travel allowances, relocation assistance, a signing bonus and/or equity.

To view more detailed information about Ally's Total Rewards, please visit this link: https://www.ally.com/content/dam/pdf/corporate/ally-total-rewards-snapshot.pdf

Who We Are:

Ally Financial is