Risk Data Scientist

Summary

Join Kiavi's Risk Analytics team as a Data Scientist to reinvent real estate investment lending. You will collaborate with the Director of Risk Analytics to address credit risk management, asset valuation, and process optimization challenges. This role involves utilizing advanced data manipulation and modeling techniques on structured and unstructured data. You will interact with various teams, including MLOps engineers and Product Managers. The position is a 6-month contract, potentially remote, offering a competitive salary and benefits package. Kiavi is a leading private lender to residential real estate investors, leveraging data and technology for efficient capital access.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative discipline (e.g., statistics, economics, finance, physics, mathematics) and 2+ years of work experience in a modeling group at a commercial bank, investment bank, consulting firm, or fintech company OR Advanced degree (PhD or MS) in a quantitative discipline
• Statistical skills especially in model development at an account or customer level
• Solid understanding of machine learning techniques
• Strong programming skills in SQL, Python
• Experience with data visualization tools like Tableau
• Team player with strong interpersonal skills
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts in practical terms

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain credit policies for loan underwriting. This requires thorough statistical analysis of the underlying data and understanding of the various macroeconomic factors and risk factors that impact the credit quality of borrowers
• Develop models for portfolio management purposes such as loss forecasting, loan modifications and collections
• Develop analytical tools to support other teams
• Working with the technology team, drive initiatives to enhance data capabilities and streamline infrastructure
• Work closely with engineers/data infrastructure team in designing useful data attributes
• Perform exploratory analysis and make recommendations on improving current data models, decisioning framework, etc
• Refactor existing analytic solutions to improve scalability

Preferred Qualifications

• Progress towards FRM or CFA certification
• Hands on experience with loan underwriting/scoring/default/prepayment models
• Exposure to time-to-event/survival analysis problems
• Experience in handling unstructured data
• Experience with Spark
• Experience with Monte Carlo simulation and/or Bayesian statistics

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance: Kiavi offers free employee-only coverage for medical, dental, and vision plans. Dependents receive a heavily discounted premium, competitively placed in the 90th percentile for cost
• Health Savings Account (HSA): For those enrolled in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), Kiavi provides an annual employer contribution to HSAs: $500 for individual coverage and $1,000 for dependents
• Disability and Life Insurance: Immediate access to short-term and long-term disability insurance, as well as group life and AD&D insurance, with coverage at 1x annual salary
• Remote Work Policy: Kiavi supports working remotely for day to day activities for most roles and occasionally may ask employees to gather in person for key meetings, trainings, team building etc. For remote workers, Kiavi offers a one-time office setup reimbursement of up to $500 and a monthly $85 stipend for internet and phone expenses. For in-office workers, Kiavi offers employer contributions to commuter benefits account, either for parking or public transportation
• Flexible Time Off: Employees are empowered to manage their own time off, with no strict limits, as long as it's approved by their manager
• Paid Leaves: Up to 8 weeks of paid leave for medical or caregiver purposes, and 12 weeks of paid maternity/paternity leave. Short-term disability leave is also available for birthing mothers
• 401(k) & Company Match: A 401(k) plan managed by Fidelity, with Kiavi matching 100% of contributions up to 3% of compensation or $6,000 (whichever is less). All employer contributions are immediately vested