Novo - Head - Decision Science - Credit Risk Modeling

Novo is seeking an inquisitive, motivated, and agile Lead Data Scientist to join our banking revolution. You will have a position that involves overseeing the end to end ideation, production, deployment, and assessment of analytics projects focused on mitigating risk, predicting user behaviour, and limiting downside financial loss. This person will assist to lead Novo's risk modelling team, and work cross departmentally to ensure the advancement of Novo's data-driven decision science strategy well into the future.

Reporting directly to the CTO, and Head of Data and Risk Analytics, you will:

- Review on-boarding data, account activity, and fraud losses

- Develop and implement decision science initiatives

- Assist in data collection, collation, and analytics strategy

- Using SQL, R, Python, review user data using machine learning strategies to build predictive and prescriptive models that will assist the product, marketing, and operations team: design new on-boarding flows, target new qualified users, and assign account limits

- Build data models on an ongoing basis and back test these models to create fraud loss prevention strategies

- Manage a team of data analysts to conduct fraud risk focused data analysis

- Assist with outreach to various third parties and vendors to find new datasets

- Work with the development team to build out new tools to automate existing fraud management systems and processes

- Example projects: - Create user behaviour profiles/account - DNA monitoring systems, to predict fraud, prevent losses, and identify cross-sell opportunities

- Conduct credit default, and credit pricing model analysis

What's in it for you?

- Work for a revolutionary early stage startup, backed by Barclays, poised for rapid growth and expansion

- Come into the company as the first member of an ace team that YOU will build, manage, and train

- Competitive industry salary

- Flexible working arrangements (i.e. remote work)

- Be part of a young, driven, hard working team

- Become a critical member of the team with real responsibility and the ability to shape the trajectory of the company as a whole

Required Qualifications & desired skills:

- Minimum Master's degree in data science, computer science, engineering, statistics, mathematics, or other related technical field

- Proven track record working in digital banking, on-boarding risk analysis, credit default prediction, account behaviour analysis, or other financial data science projects a must

- 10+ years experience working the financial services/banking industry as an analyst/data scientist

- Self-starter, requiring little management. We want you to tell us what you need, not for us to tell you what to do.

- Proficient in a range of big data, statistical analysis, and querying languages such as SQL, R, Python

- Ability to think outside the box, work with limited data, and find solutions to unorthodox problems

- Ability to oversee critical analytics projects from end to end independently

- An interest in financial crime, must be excited with the idea of digging deeper, looking into customer behaviours and identifying key characteristics of fraudulent users

- Excellent written and verbal communication skills

- Ability to work in a fast paced work environment and culture

- Ability to work cross departmentally, without the need for extensive hierarchical corporate structure

- An inquisitive and highly detailed oriented work ethic

- To be curious, quick, and relentlessly creative in approach to analytical problems

Who are we?

Novo is a banking platform that provides better business deposit accounts to today's companies and is powered by a network of FDIC-insured community banks. Novo is bringing small business banking into the modern age with easy-to-use tools for founders on the go.

We're the underdogs of the banking world, putting ourselves against the big banks. Small businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of the US economy; they comprise almost half of the GDP and employ nearly half of the private workforce. Yet, small business banking is terrible because big banks know it's nearly impossible for new players to enter the market. As a result, there is no incentive to innovate and challenge the status quo. Well, the secret is out and we- re here to change it.