Role Overview:

We are looking for a passionate and highly skilled Data Science Manager - Credit Risk with a strong foundation in machine learning, statistical modelling, and real-world problem solving within the BFSI and lending domain. The ideal candidate will have 7 - 9 years of hands-on experience in building, fine-tuning, and deploying end-to-end data science solutions, ranging from traditional risk scorecards to advanced machine learning models. You will be responsible for translating complex credit and portfolio risk challenges into scalable, production-grade AI/ML solutions that power our next-generation lending products and decision engines.

Key Responsibilities:

Model Development & Research:

- Credit Risk Modeling: Design and develop end-to-end credit risk models, including application scorecards, behavioral model development, and portfolio risk modeling.

- Portfolio Analytics & Strategy: Monitor portfolio health across vintages, segments, and products through delinquency trends, roll-rate analysis, and early-warning indicators; translate these insights into risk-based pricing, underwriting policy, and credit strategy recommendations.

- Supervised Machine Learning: Apply advanced supervised machine learning techniques alongside traditional statistical frameworks like Logistic Regression, Generalized Linear Models (GLM), and XGBoost.

- Unsupervised Learning: Utilize unsupervised learning techniques like PCA (Principal Component Analysis) for dimensionality reduction and K-means customer clustering to identify risk segments, fraud vectors, and behavioral patterns.

- Risk Metrics Estimation: Own the development of core risk parameters, including Probability of Default (PD), Loss Given Default (LGD), and Expected Credit Loss (ECL).

- Performance Benchmarking: Benchmark and continuously improve model performance using appropriate evaluation metrics and experimentation frameworks.

Data Handling & Feature Engineering:

- Large-Scale Data Processing: Work with large-scale structured and unstructured datasets to build robust data pipelines, conduct exploratory data analysis, and engineer high-quality features.

- Credit Bureau Integration: Leverage deep familiarity with Credit Bureau data to extract, preprocess, and incorporate bureau features into predictive workflows.

- Data Quality Assurance: Ensure rigorous data preprocessing, augmentation, and validation to maximize model accuracy and generalization.

Algorithm Design & Optimisation:

- Production Optimization: Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and implement scalable algorithms optimised for production environments.

- Model Explainability: Ensure risk algorithms conform to high standards of transparency, interpretability, and statistical soundness.

Stakeholder Management:

- Business Alignment: Partner closely with product, engineering, and business teams to align AI/ML solutions with organizational goals.

- Scoping Requirements: Translate ambiguous business and portfolio problems into well-scoped data science problem statements with clear success criteria.

Mentoring & Knowledge Sharing:

- Team Guidance: Mentor junior data scientists and ML engineers, providing guidance on modelling approaches, code quality, and production readiness.

Education Qualifications:

- Bachelor's or Master's degree from a premier institution in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, or a related quantitative field.

Experience:

- 7 - 9 years of relevant experience in credit risk modelling and portfolio analytics, applied data science, machine learning engineering, or risk analytics specifically within the BFSI and lending domain.

- Proven track record of developing credit risk scorecards, behavioral models, and regulatory frameworks (BASEL-2 / IFRS9 / ECL / PD / LGD).

- Demonstrated experience implementing supervised machine learning techniques and unsupervised learning techniques (e.g., PCA, K-means customer clustering).

- Strong understanding of statistical fundamentals and neural network fundamentals.

- Generative AI: Experience or familiarity with Agentic AI frameworks and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures.

- Deep Learning: Hands-on experience applying deep learning techniques to financial services or credit risk use cases.

- Advanced LLM Frameworks: Familiarity with prompt engineering, RLHF, and LLM evaluation frameworks.

- Governance: Contributions to open-source ML projects, published research, or active participation in responsible AI and strict model governance practices within regulated industries.