Principal Data Scientist - Remote & Strategic Leader

Forward Financing; Boston (MA); On-site; CAD 208,000 - 286,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

RRSP match

Flexible time-off policy

Parental leave

Wellness reimbursement

Job summary

Forward Financing seeks a Principal Data Scientist to set the technical vision for data science and drive high-impact initiatives from concept to production. You will shape a multi-year data science roadmap, define model deployment standards, and advise senior leadership.

You will lead the design and deployment of complex credit-risk models, partner with cross-functional teams, mentor data scientists, and communicate progress to executives within a remote-first environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years hands-on model development and deployment in fintech or financial services
• Experience with real-time models, decisioning engines, and production‑grade pipelines
• Expert in Python, SQL and Git
• Bachelor's degree in Financial/Applied Math, Economics, OR Statistics; advanced degree a plus

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and deployment of complex statistical and ML models
• Drive end-to-end data science initiatives from framing to production
• Define strategy for modeling ecosystem to ensure long-term scalability
• Partner with Portfolio Strategy, Engineering, Product, Underwriting, Sales, and Collections
• Mentor data scientists and raise technical standards
• Communicate technical concepts to executives and stakeholders

Skills

Credit risk models

Underwriting models

Python

SQL

Git

AWS/SageMaker

Metaflow

Production ML pipelines

Executive communication

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in Financial/Applied Math, OR Economics/Statistics

Master's or PhD preferred

Tools

SageMaker

Metaflow

Snowflake

Databricks

Arize

Tecton

Job description

Forward Financing seeks a Principal Data Scientist to set the technical vision for data science and drive high-impact initiatives from concept to production. You will shape a multi-year data science roadmap, define model deployment standards, and advise senior leadership.

You will lead the design and deployment of complex credit-risk models, partner with cross-functional teams, mentor data scientists, and communicate progress to executives within a remote-first environment.