Staff Data Scientist

EMPOWER OVERVIEW

Empower is shaking up an outdated financial system by providing real opportunity for our customers: the opportunity to get the cash they need, to access fair credit, and to change their financial story. Today, we’re helping millions of people find financial security through machine learning models that evaluate creditworthiness using a more inclusive lens and mobile-first products: Cash Advance, Thrive line of credit, and Petal credit cards. Tomorrow? Creating even more financial paths for our customers (and their wallets) to succeed.

This year, Empower ranked #65 on Inc. 5000’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list — our third year in a row cracking the top 100 — and was named by Forbes as one of the 25 Next Billion-Dollar Startups for 2024. Empower was also featured by Forbes on America’s Best Startup Employers list in 2023, and our Thrive line of credit product was named by Fast Company as one of 2022’s Next Big Things in Tech.

Empower is backed by Sequoia Capital, Blisce, and Icon Ventures. Ready to grow your impact and accelerate your career? Take a look at our open roles — we can’t wait to meet you.

THE EMPOWER WAY

Great Expectations: We come up with bold, audacious goals for ourselves and go all out for impact

Owner Mindset: We give every employee latitude to act independently, make smart choices, and move the business forward

Spirited Debate: We love skeptics and seek counter opinions to challenge our personal assumptions and expand our view

Customer Obsession: We listen to understand, empathize, and create a memorable, rewarding experience for our community

Inclusive Collaboration: We believe diverse teams make the best decisions, and we strive to give diverse voices a seat at the table

No Jerks Allowed: We value our relationships and take the time to build trust and connection and communicate respectfully

WHAT EMPOWER OFFERS

Competitive salary

Generous equity package

Full healthcare benefits

Technology expense reimbursement

Work from anywhere

JOB DESCRIPTION
Our data scientists are responsible for the entire model development process from conception with stakeholders, creation of model pipelines, technical development, deployment, and partnership with the credit, product, and finance teams to make business decisions.

The ideal candidate is passionate about using data and models to drive business growth and help customers improve their financial situations.  This individual will own creating and improving credit risk models to help the business decrease loss rates and increase approval rates. They will also need to partner with product, tech, and finance teams to build out solutions that drive value for Empower and our customers.  The right person for this role is someone who shines while solving complex problems and is comfortable with a wide variety of technical tools.

Empower is a remote-first company. We drive connectivity through regular company offsites. Travel for company offsites is expected at a minimum 2 times a year.

Key Responsibilities

• Grow user base and increase retention through machine learning and analytics

• Build machine learning models with large scale data sets to address business priorities

• Design and influence strategies on underwriting, marketing, fraud and customer experience

• Work closely with our engineering team as you implement models in production 

• Collaborate effectively with operations and product to ensure the work fits into the broader strategy and business context

• Develop data standards and analytics pipelines to facilitate current and future analysis

Candidate Qualifications

• BS degree in engineering, computer science, finance or mathematics

• 5+ years industry experience in data mining, machine learning, statistical analysis, and/or predictive modeling

• Deep understanding of statistics and machine learning techniques, including regression, classification, clustering and optimization Experience building predictive models from scratch

• Strong programming skills (Python preferred) with intermediate to advanced knowledge of SQL

• Demonstrable experience with ML packages: scikit-learn, LightGBM, XGBoost, SparkML, etc.

• Knowledge in deep learning and experience with DL toolkits (Tensorflow, Keras, PyTorch) is preferred though not required

• Comfort working with a variety of cross functional partners in tech, product, credit, and business

• Strong and structured approach to problem solving and ability to use of frameworks to communicate complex topics in an effective manner

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or PhD preferred

• At least 2+ year at a bank or FinTech working in data science or credit analytics is a plus

• Experience in cloud computing (AWS, Azure, etc.) is a plus

At Empower, we hire for people that push themselves to understand others and seek out ways to challenge their personal assumptions. Our hope is that by fostering such an environment, we strengthen our business and relationships by putting people first. We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workspace where everyone (regardless of age, education, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or any personal characteristics) feels like they belong. Even if your experience doesn’t exactly match up to our job description, you should feel empowered to apply regardless!