Manager of Data Science, Credit & Fraud Risk Modeling

Kafene • New York, NY

3d • $95,000 - $140,000 • Remote

About The Position

Kafene is revolutionizing the lease-to-own space with cutting-edge AI and machine learning to make flexible lease-to-own accessible to everyone. Our 175-person team is dedicated to collaboration, innovation, and support. We are seeking a Manager of Data Scientist, a senior individual contributor, to own the full lifecycle of ML models for credit risk decisions. Reporting to the VP of Risk, this role involves designing, building, deploying, and monitoring models that impact customer approvals, credit limits, default prediction, and loss forecasting. The position requires close collaboration with cross-functional partners in risk, engineering, finance, and sales, offering a unique opportunity to influence both technical infrastructure and business strategy.

Requirements

• Master's or PhD in a quantitative discipline: Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Econometrics, or a related field.
• 5+ years working as a Data Scientist or ML Engineer with a focus on predictive modeling, ideally in credit risk, fraud detection, or financial analytics.
• Experience deploying models that affect real credit or lending decisions.
• Advanced Python for statistical modeling and ML.
• Strong SQL for data extraction and feature construction.
• Deep expertise in ML algorithms for structured/tabular data: gradient boosting, ensemble methods, regression models, decision trees, and AutoML frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with model risk governance frameworks and working alongside validation teams (e.g., SR 11-7).
• Ability to explain complex models to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience in consumer lending, fintech, or financial services.
• Understanding of DTI, PTI, and vintage analysis without needing context.

Responsibilities

• Mine internal and external datasets to engineer high-signal features (DTI, PTI, payment behavior, account balance patterns) to improve the predictive power of production credit models.
• Own the end-to-end development of strategic credit risk models, including approval amount sensitivity, credit line optimization, and loss forecasting.
• Source, clean, and transform financial data into modeling-ready datasets, establishing data integrity standards.
• Evaluate third-party data vendors and scoring products, leading cost-benefit analyses for integration into models.
• Apply new techniques from ML literature to credit risk problems, ensuring improvements are deployed to production.
• Partner with engineering to implement models into production accurately and efficiently, defining model validation standards and promoting repeatable deployment.
• Monitor model performance in production, leading recalibration and redevelopment when performance drifts.
• Navigate model risk governance, regulatory requirements, and data vendor usage policies, ensuring proper documentation.
• Translate business questions from risk, finance, and sales into modeling problems and communicate solutions clearly.

Benefits

• Competitive salary ($95,000-$140,000)
• 80% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance costs for employees and dependents
• 401k plan
• Flexible paid time off days starting from day one

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior