Data Scientist - Credit Risk Modelling in Kennington

We’re looking for a Data Scientist to join our Credit Risk Modelling team. You'll work on the credit models that sit at the core of iwoca's lending business – the models that decide who we lend to, on what terms, and how far the product can grow.

The Credit Risk Modelling team owns credit risk and customer lifetime value (CLtV) modelling for iwoca's UK and German lending. That covers the probabilistic machine learning models behind every credit decision, plus the CLtV models that shape pricing and portfolio strategy. The team is around twelve data scientists, who combined create models to efficiently drive fully automated and human-in-the-loop decision making.

The role involves running credit and CLtV modelling projects alongside the rest of the team. The work spans keeping production models healthy, incremental development, and research that reshapes how the models work. Live examples of the work include:

• Causal estimation of offer terms.
• Unifying auto and manual models.
• IFRS accounting model.
• Generalising credit and CLtV.

Requirements

Essential:

• Communication: You write and speak clearly, directly, and concisely.
• Statistical foundations: You have a background in probability and statistics from a quantitative field.
• Research mindset: You're actively exploring new ways to add value.
• Judgement: You critically evaluate model output and can explain your reasoning.
• Analytical ownership: You take ambiguous problems end to end.
• AI fluency: You use AI as a primary tool.

Bonus:

• Domain experience in credit risk, lending, or customer lifetime value modelling.
• Production ML: You have built and shipped supervised ML models end to end.
• Non-linear methods: You can think in terms of the cost function and inductive biases of your models.
• Bayesian methods: You have used hierarchical models, MCMC, or Bayesian updating in real work.
• Time series modelling: You have modelled temporal data where autocorrelation, drift, or seasonality mattered.
• Python: The stack the team uses.

Salary: We expect to pay from 60,000 – 90,000 for this role.

Culture: At iwoca, the best idea wins. We model our culture on independent thinking, challenging untested logic, and evidence-based decisions.

Benefits:

• Flexible working hours.
• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.
• A private GP service for you, your partner, and your dependents.
• 25 days’ holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, and unlimited unpaid leave.
• A one-month, fully paid sabbatical after four years.
• 3% Pension contributions on total earnings.
• An employee equity incentive scheme.
• Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme.
• Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme.
• Two company retreats a year.

To make sure we all keep learning, we offer a learning and development budget for everyone.