Sr. Data Scientist - Credit Risk

Advance America, Cash Advance Centers, Inc.; Greenville (SC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive Wages

401(k) Savings Plan with Company Match

Company Paid Holidays

Tuition Reimbursement

Business Casual Environment

Rewards & Recognition Program

Employee Assistance Program

Downtown Greenville Office – Free Park

Job summary

Purpose Financial seeks a Senior Data Scientist, Credit Risk to own the analytics roadmap for our Line of Credit products. You will build, validate, and deploy models across acquisition, utilization, and repayment, influencing credit policy and forecasting outcomes.

Collaboration with Finance, Digital Operations, and Compliance is essential as you mentor juniors. The role requires modeling expertise in Python/R, boosting methods, survival analysis, and strong SQL; familiarity with Tableau/Power

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field; advanced degree preferred.
• 3–5 years of experience in credit risk analytics or modeling in consumer lending.
• Proven production experience building credit risk models in lending environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead LOC credit risk analytics agenda from acquisition scoring to portfolio monitoring.
• Develop and validate ML models across customer lifecycle and channels.
• Produce loss forecasts and explain key variances to leadership.
• Design experiments to optimize line assignment, terms, and policy actions.
• Document models for risk management and regulatory review.
• Present findings to senior audiences; mentor junior data scientists.

Skills

Python

R

Gradient boosting

Logistic regression

Survival analysis

SQL

Tableau

Power BI

Pandas

NumPy

scikit-learn

XGBoost

LightGBM

SHAP

Education

Bachelor’s degree in statistics/economics/math/compsci/engineering

Tools

Tableau

Power BI

Job description

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Purpose Financial, Inc. is an innovative consumer financial services company that offers a diverse suite of credit products, promoting financial inclusion and meeting consumers wherever they are. Through its brands, the company is committed to helping customers achieve their version of financial stability in the moment and in the future. Since 1997, Purpose Financial has been a pioneer in the consumer credit and financial services market offering money solutions in over 800 storefronts locations and online lending. Providing services in over 23 states, Purpose Financial employs over 2,500 team members.

At Purpose Financial we are always on the lookout for motivated individuals who share in our values of mutual respect to join our team of outstanding professionals.

We offer:

• Competitive Wages
• 401(k) Savings Plan with Company Match
• Company Paid Holidays
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Business Casual Environment
• Rewards & Recognition Program
• Employee Assistance Program
• Office in downtown Greenville that offers free parking, onsite gym, free snacks/drinks

Purpose Financial is seeking a Senior Data Scientist, Credit Risk to serve as the dedicated modeling and analytics resource for our Line of Credit (LOC) products. This role owns the credit risk analytics agenda for our LOC products end to end: acquisition scoring, initial line assignment, line management, utilization and draw behavior, loss forecasting, and portfolio performance monitoring across Storefront, Digital, and Lead Generation channels.

The ideal candidate has built credit models for revolving or line-based products, and can translate borrower behavior into line strategy, credit policy, and forecasted financial outcomes.

This role sits within Credit Risk and Data Science, reports to the Director of Data Science & Credit Risk. and partners closely with Finance, Digital Operations, Collections, Product, and Compliance. The successful candidate is comfortable operating with a high degree of independence, moving from ambiguous business question to defensible analytical answer, and presenting that answer to senior leadership.

Job Responsibility

• Serve as the dedicated credit risk data science resource for the LOC portfolio, owning the model and analytics roadmap for the product.
• Develop, validate, and maintain machine learning and statistical models across the LOC customer lifecycle, including application scoring, initial line assignment, line increase and line decrease strategy, reauthorization, and behavioral scoring.
• Build and refine LOC-specific risk metric.
• Design and execute champion/challenger tests and controlled experiments to optimize line assignment, fee structure, reauthorization criteria, and offer terms across customer segments and origination channels.
• Produce and defend loss forecasts for the LOC portfolio, including vintage curve development, roll rate analysis, and survival or hazard-based approaches suited to open-ended revolving exposure where traditional vintage diagonals are less informative.
• Partner with Finance and Product on net charge-off forecasting, net yield analysis, and budget reforecast cycles, explaining variance between forecast and actual performance in terms of mix, vintage quality, and policy change.
• Recommend credit policy actions grounded in analysis, including tightening or loosening thresholds, segment-level cutoffs, and line sizing changes, and quantify the expected volume, loss, and revenue tradeoff of each action.
• Evaluate alternative and bureau data sources for incremental lift in the LOC population and integrate them into production models as they become available.
• Document models to standards consistent with model risk management expectations, supporting internal validation, audit, and regulatory review.
• Present findings and recommendations to the Credit Risk Review Committee and other senior audiences, translating technical work into clear business implication.
• Mentor junior data scientists and analysts on modeling technique, credit domain knowledge, and analytical rigor.

Accountability: Understand, adhere to, and enforce all corporate policies.

Job Responsibilities Cont.

Education Required

Bachelor's degree in Statistics, Economics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field. Advanced degree strongly preferred.

Experience Required

At least three (3) to five (5) years of experience in credit risk analytics, credit modeling, or a closely related quantitative role within consumer lending. Direct experience building and deploying credit risk models in a production lending environment is required.

Experience with revolving or line-based credit products, such as lines of credit, credit cards, or open-ended installment structures, is strongly preferred. Experience in the non-prime or subprime consumer segment is a significant advantage.

Knowledge Required

Excellent written and verbal communications skills; adaptability and flexibility to changing environment; and comfortable working in a dynamic, high volume, fast-paced environment. Ability to understand and ensure compliance with policies, procedures, and laws governing our industry/business and products.

• Demonstrated ability to build production credit risk models using Python or R, including gradient boosting methods, logistic regression, and survival or time to event techniques.
• Working fluency with the Python data science stack, including Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, XGBoost or LightGBM, and SHAP or comparable explainability tooling.
• Strong SQL skills and the ability to work independently against large, imperfect transactional data.
• Understanding of consumer credit fundamentals: probability of default, exposure at default, loss given default, roll rates, vintage analysis, and reserve or allowance concepts.
• Familiarity with the regulatory environment governing consumer lending, including ECOA and Regulation B, FCRA, adverse action requirements, fair lending, and disparate impact considerations, UDAAP, and model risk management expectations consistent with SR 11-7.
• Experience with reporting and visualization tools such as Tableau or Power BI.
• Experience with data engineering practices, version control, and reproducible analytical workflows is a plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present technical analysis to non-technical executive audiences in person, by phone, and through email.
• Adaptability and flexibility to changing environment; and comfortable working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment. Ability to interact professionally and exhibit appropriate social skills. Ability to understand and ensure compliance with policies, procedures, and laws governing our industry, business, and products. Ability to quickly learn all technology needed to perform the role.

Physical Requirements

Sitting for long periods of time; standing occasionally; walking; bending; squatting; kneeling; pushing/pulling; reaching; twisting; frequent lifting of less than 10 lbs., occasional lifting of up to 20 lbs.; driving and having access during the workday to an insured and reliable transportation; typing; data entry; grasping; transferring items between hands and/or to another person or receptacle; use of office equipment to include computers; ability to travel to, be physically present at, and complete the physical requirements of the position at any assigned location

OKR

Travel

0-10%

Attire

Business Casual

Other

Must be eligible to work in the USA and able to pass a background check.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or disability.
Requisition ID: 46570

Nearest Major Market: Greenville
Nearest Secondary Market: South Carolina