Data Scientist

Who you are

• Statistical foundations. You have a background in probability and statistics from a quantitative field. You reason about uncertainty and calibration as first-order concerns
• Research mindset. You're actively exploring new ways to add value. R&D time is when you expect to find the next step change
• Judgement. You critically evaluate model output – yours, a colleague's, or an LLM's – and can explain why a choice is right. You defend your reasoning under challenge, and challenge others' when the evidence points elsewhere
• Analytical ownership. You take ambiguous problems end to end, from framing to a landed decision. You like to move fast, iterate, and update on new evidence rather than chase perfection
• AI fluency. You use AI as a primary tool. You prototype with it, automate with it, and take on R&D that would not otherwise be viable. You use judgement on where it helps and where it doesn't
• Communication. You write and speak clearly, directly, and concisely. You adapt technical detail to your audience
• Domain experience. You have worked in credit risk, lending, or customer lifetime value modelling
• Production ML. You have built and shipped supervised ML models end to end – exploration, training, deployment, monitoring
• 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

What the job involves

• 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. This forms the core analytical team that interface with and support smaller analytic functions in other parts of the business
• You'll run 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. AI has lowered the cost of prototyping enough that ideas which used to sit below the priority line are now viable, so the R&D share of the role is growing

Benefits

• Work where you work best: Twice a year we rent houses in places like Sicily and the French Alps where each team can work together for a week poolside. We champion flexible working in all our teams
• Invest in iwoca: We want people to be invested in iwoca's success so after six months you'll be awarded share options
• Keep yourself healthy: We offer comprehensive health insurance and cash plans. You'll also get gym discounts and we host yoga classes in the office every week
• Start (and end) your day right: Each floor of iwoca HQ has a fully stocked fridge for breakfast and every Friday we unwind with beers and wine
• Life-work balance: We know your life outside of work comes first. We offer enhanced maternity and paternity leave for new parents plus a nursery benefit. We also have unlimited unpaid leave
• Learning and development: Whether you want to learn to code, experiment with motion design, or beat cognitive biases, you'll have time and budget to invest in your professional development