This role is being recruited for by Vecta, on behalf of one of our partner companies.
Location: Northampton, UK (Hybrid)
Contract: Permanent, Full-Time
Salary: Competitive Base + Annual Bonus (up to 15%)
Reports To: Head of AI & Machine Learning
The Opportunity
This is a hands‑on, high‑impact data science role inside a fast‑growing UK financial services group that has funded over £1.5 billion for 20,000+ SMEs. The business operates as both a direct lender and a broker with a panel of 60+ lending partners – and it’s now making a major investment in AI and data science to sharpen every stage of its credit lifecycle.
As a Senior Data Scientist, you’ll own the full modelling journey – from exploratory analysis and feature engineering through to validated, production‑ready credit risk and valuation models deployed in AWS. Working closely with the Head of AI & ML, you’ll improve existing models, propose entirely new approaches, and shape the data strategy that underpins lending decisions worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
This isn’t a role where your analysis sits in a slide deck. Your models will go live, your recommendations will shift real lending policy, and your ideas will have a direct line to the business.
What You’ll Do
* Develop end‑to‑end machine learning models for credit risk – including probability of default, loss‑given‑default, and borrower scoring – from research through to production deployment.
* Build and refine discounted cash flow (DCF) models for asset valuation, integrating market data, historical performance, and business‑specific signals.
* Conduct deep exploratory data analysis to identify new predictive features, data quality issues, and opportunities to improve model accuracy.
* Design and run rigorous model validation and back‑testing frameworks, ensuring models meet both internal standards and regulatory expectations.
* Propose and deliver improvements to existing models, workflows, and data strategies – challenge the status quo with evidence‑backed recommendations.
* Partner with data engineering to shape the data infrastructure: clean pipelines, reliable feature stores, and well‑governed datasets.
* Translate complex model outputs into clear, actionable insights for non‑technical stakeholders, including senior leadership and risk committees.
* Explore new data science applications across the business – from automated underwriting signals and portfolio segmentation to collections optimisation.
* Stay current with developments in credit risk modelling, ML research, and relevant regulatory guidance, bringing best practice into the team.
What You’ll Bring
* Proven experience developing machine learning credit risk models – scorecards, PD/LGD/EAD, or equivalent – with a track record of models reaching production.
* Advanced Python skills with strong data science fundamentals (pandas, scikit‑learn, XGBoost, statsmodels, or similar).
* Strong problem‑solving ability and a rigorous, evidence‑driven approach to model development.
* Excellent communication skills – you can explain a model’s assumptions, limitations, and business implications to a non‑technical audience.
Preferred
* Understanding of financial concepts such as discounted cash flows, net present value, and yield curves.
* Hands‑on experience with AWS services (SageMaker, S3, Glue, Athena, or equivalent cloud infrastructure).
* Familiarity with MLOps practices and tooling (MLflow, Airflow, dbt, or equivalent).
* Awareness of regulatory expectations around model risk management (e.g. SR 11‑7, PRA model risk guidance).
The Kind of Person Who Thrives Here
* You’re commercially minded – you understand that a model’s value is measured by the decisions it improves, not just its AUC.
* You’re calm under pressure, organised, and comfortable juggling competing priorities in a fast‑paced environment.
* You’re detail‑oriented and rigorous, but you know when to move from analysis to action.
* You’re proactive and curious – you don’t wait for a brief to explore an interesting signal in the data.
* You work well independently but enjoy collaborating across a small, ambitious team.
Why This Role
📊 Models That Matter
Your work directly shapes lending decisions on a book worth hundreds of millions.
End‑to‑end: from EDA and feature engineering to deployment and monitoring.
Strong base salary plus annual bonus of up to 15%.
Northampton HQ with flexible hybrid arrangements.
📈 High‑Growth Business
A company that’s more than doubled in recent years with serious scale ambitions.
🤝 Direct Access to Leadership
Work alongside the Head of AI & ML.
About the Company
This is a well‑established, privately owned UK finance group headquartered in Northampton. Founded in 2007, the business provides SMEs with access to a comprehensive range of funding options – from asset finance and hire purchase to business loans and government‑backed schemes. Operating as both a direct lender and a broker with a panel of 60+ partners, the company has arranged over £1.5 billion in funding for more than 20,000 businesses across every sector.
Highly rated by its customers (4.8 stars across 900+ reviews) and having more than doubled in size in recent years, the business is now investing significantly in data science and machine learning to transform its credit risk, underwriting, and valuation capabilities. This role is central to that transformation.
Please note: as part of the recruitment process, a criminal records check and a credit history check will be carried out by an authorised third party.
#J-18808-Ljbffr