Senior Manager, Data Science

Portfolio Management and Loss Mitigation

The Role: 

SoFi is seeking an inspirational and deeply experienced Senior Manager to lead the Portfolio Management and Loss Mitigation function in our Risk Data Science team. Reporting to the Head of Risk Data Science, this role will lead the development, deployment, and governance of portfolio management and loss mitigation models for all credit products.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader who can transition the team from traditional modeling to next-generation machine learning platforms, leveraging emerging data sources (e.g., cash flow, alternative bureaus) to significantly improve portfolio performance, reduce losses, and ensure rigorous adherence to Model Risk Management (MRM) standards. This role requires exceptional organizational leadership, an ability to influence stakeholders, and proven success in delivering complex models into a regulated production environment.

What You'll Do: 

• Portfolio Management and Loss Mitigation Excellence: Directly oversee the development and deployment of Next Generation models designed to manage and mitigate portfolio losses while maintaining loss guardrails.
• Drive Next-Generation Capabilities: Incorporate industry trends and advanced techniques (NLP, Graph Mining, LLMs, Deep Learning) to solve complex, high-impact risk problems where established principles may not fully apply.
• Alternative Data Strategy: Spearhead the evaluation and integration of alternative data sources (Macro-Economic variables, tri-bureau, LexisNexis, cash flow data) to enhance predictive power across all credit products.
• Lead the current team of high-performing Staff and Senior Data Scientists. Recruit, mentor, and foster talent through deliberate interactions, succession planning, and creating a high-accountability, low-ego culture.
• Model Risk Management (MRM): Act as the primary owner for all models in the portfolio, ensuring robust documentation, monitoring, and successfully navigating the 2nd Line of Defense (2LOD) review and approval process (SR 11-7 familiarity is mandatory).
• Stakeholder Alignment: Interact and negotiate with senior management and external stakeholders to reconcile competing views and drive critical, high-impact business decisions.
• Automation and Efficiency: Lead efforts to automate model monitoring and governance processes to create scalable and auditable infrastructure.

What You'll Need:

• Experience: 8+ years of progressive experience in credit risk, modeling, and data science within a regulated financial institution (FinTech, Bank, or similar), with at least 3 years in a people management role, managing technical staff.
• Education: Master’s or Ph.D. degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Operations Research, etc.).
• Technical Acumen: Deep expertise in advanced statistical and machine learning modeling techniques (e.g., Gradient Boosting, Deep Learning, Causal Inference).
• Regulatory Knowledge: Detailed working knowledge of model risk management standards (e.g., SR 11-7) and the ability to operate within a highly regulated environment.
• Tools & Platforms: Expert-level proficiency in Python (PySpark, scikit-learn, TensorFlow/PyTorch) and SQL/data warehouse technologies (e.g., Snowflake, Hive). Familiarity with modern MLOps platforms and cloud computing (AWS).
• 3+ years of progressive people management experience is required, including the ability to recruit, mentor, and foster talent within a team of high-performing Staff and Senior Data Scientists.
• Communication: Ability to distill highly complex analytical concepts into clear, concise, and compelling narratives for non-technical leadership.

The role:

The SoFi Credit Oversight team is responsible for managing credit risk across all lending products (Student Loan Refinance, Private Student Loan, Personal Loan, Credit Card, and Mortgage). This includes developing credit strategies and policies for new account origination, portfolio management, collections, and recovery operations, as well as providing oversight of operational controls.

The Director is responsible for overseeing credit risk activities for Student Lending (Student Loan Refinance & Private InSchool products) and will review and challenge strategy proposals to ensure growth is consistent with the company’s risk appetite. The role demands a strong analytical mindset, critical thinking skills, and a self-starting approach.

Key responsibilities include:

• Proactive Monitoring and Strategy Enhancement: Proactively engage with First Line partners, independently monitor strategies and performance, and leverage business acumen, credit experience, and quantitative skills to deliver data-informed insights and recommendations for strategy enhancement opportunities.

• Governance and Operational Controls: Lead the governance and oversight of operational controls supporting credit strategy changes, ensuring strong change management, data integrity, and strict adherence to risk and compliance standards across all lending portfolios.

• Risk and Control Self-Assessments (RCSA): Challenge and strengthen first line RCSA processes by providing effective second line oversight, identifying control gaps, and driving remediation to enhance the overall control environment.  Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner cross-functionally with Credit, Operations, and Risk teams to enhance control design, monitoring, and sustainable risk management practices.

The ideal candidate will possess a data-driven analytics background, strategic acumen, and a controls mindset. This expertise will support SoFi’s overarching strategic goals for loss prevention and profit optimization. Furthermore, the Director is expected to drive innovation by introducing new ways of thinking, data sources, technologies, and capabilities to SoFi.

What you’ll do:

• Innovate… Bring your brightest ideas to independently review and challenge algorithmic risk strategies, including but not limited to credit underwriting, pre-screen targeting & risk tier assignment. 

• Data Driven… Your deep analysis will power insight-gathering

• Iterate, learn, innovate… We are all responsible for innovation and must embrace a test-and-learn mentality and data-driven decision making.

• Collaborate… Work collaboratively with business partners to ensure optimal decision making to protect the Bank

• Control the Risk and Drive Performance Outcomes … Understand credit risk and develop approaches to mitigate loss and responsibly grow revenue. Independently monitor the performance of strategies and portfolios. Document and communicate results and escalate issues as necessary. Identify gaps/opportunities and drive actions.

• Challenge the Status Quo … Challenge others, continuously raise the bar, build better processes and attack hard problems to help First Line Credit team and the business build responsible strategies within risk appetite

What you’ll need:

• 10+ years of related experience

• Business acumen and work experience in the consumer lending business (Student Lending - preferred, Unsecured loans or credit cards)

• Direct experience in the credit strategy analytical life cycle, including strategy and decision tree development, P&L, presentation, review and challenge, and post-implementation monitoring

• Proven analytical skills in conducting sophisticated analysis using customer performance data, bureau attributes, bureau analytical sandboxes and other 3rd party variables to solve business problems

• Proficient data exploration and credit modeling skills in Excel, SQL and Python

• A demonstrated ability to synthesize and communicate analysis to business partners and senior management

• Proactive, results-driven, eager to learn, and able to work collaboratively in a fluid environment

• Knowledge/skills in analytical and modeling techniques such as decision trees, regression, logistic regression, test design

• Preferred: Experience in developing credit strategies using innovative data sources such as cash flow or alternative data

• Preferred: Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) with a quantitative major such as Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or Computer Science

The role
SoFi is seeking an energetic, analytic, and intellectually curious Independent Assessment & Review Analyst to join our Fraud Risk team. This role - as part of the 2nd Line of Defense - will conduct assessments of the fraud program design and operational effectiveness, evaluating prevention, detection, and response capabilities, including processes, tools, skills and staffing. Additionally, the person in this role will look to ensure alignment with industry best practices and compliance with regulatory standards as well as identifying exposure to fraud across business units, products, and channels making sure vulnerabilities are recognized and understood. The ideal candidate will have experience in risk management and/or analytic strategy and will be an agile learner, think strategically, and possess strong communication and problem-solving skills.
By joining SoFi, you'll become part of a forward-thinking company that is transforming financial services for the better. We offer the excitement of a rapidly growing startup with the stability of an industry leading leadership team.

What you’ll do:
·  Conduct fraud 1st line program assessments, in part querying against large relational databases
·  Improve fraud program resilience by delivering data-driven actionable feedback and recommendations
·  Monitor the implementation of recommended improvements and the ongoing evolution of the program to meet dynamic fraud landscapes and regulatory changes
·  Record discrepancies between existing controls and the level of risk protection required, highlighting areas where enhancements are needed
·  Assess the impact of new products and initiatives to the fraud risk appetite, conducting reviews and providing effective challenge
·  Review and assess fraud forecasts and forecasting methodologies, providing strategic insights and recommendations to further enhance accuracy

What you’ll need:
·  Bachelor’s degree with 2+ years experience in risk management or analytic strategy within the financial services industry preferred
·  Exceptional interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
·  Strong collaboration, organizational skills, and attention to detail
·  Must be self-motivated with the ability to work independently or within a group
·  Intellectually curious. You adapt to change, embrace bold ideas, ask questions, test assumptions, and challenge conventional thinking
·  Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to analyze complex issues, develop innovative solutions, and make data-driven decisions
·  Proficiency in data analysis and deriving meaningful insights for decision-making
·  Ability to work under tight deadlines
·  Ability to manage multiple initiatives and competing priorities, meet deadlines, and adapt to change
·  Proficiency with Google Suite and/or Microsoft Office products
·  Strong team player

The role
SoFi is seeking an energetic, analytic, and intellectually curious Independent Assessment & Review Analyst to join our Fraud Risk team. This role - as part of the 2nd Line of Defense - will conduct assessments of the fraud program design and operational effectiveness, evaluating prevention, detection, and response capabilities, including processes, tools, skills and staffing. Additionally, the person in this role will look to ensure alignment with industry best practices and compliance with regulatory standards as well as identifying exposure to fraud across business units, products, and channels making sure vulnerabilities are recognized and understood. The ideal candidate will have experience in risk management and/or analytic strategy and will be an agile learner, think strategically, and possess strong communication and problem-solving skills.
By joining SoFi, you'll become part of a forward-thinking company that is transforming financial services for the better. We offer the excitement of a rapidly growing startup with the stability of an industry leading leadership team.

What you’ll do:
·  Conduct fraud 1st line program assessments, in part querying against large relational databases
·  Improve fraud program resilience by delivering data-driven actionable feedback and recommendations
·  Monitor the implementation of recommended improvements and the ongoing evolution of the program to meet dynamic fraud landscapes and regulatory changes
·  Record discrepancies between existing controls and the level of risk protection required, highlighting areas where enhancements are needed
·  Assess the impact of new products and initiatives to the fraud risk appetite, conducting reviews and providing effective challenge
·  Review and assess fraud forecasts and forecasting methodologies, providing strategic insights and recommendations to further enhance accuracy

What you’ll need:
·  Bachelor’s degree with 2+ years experience in risk management or analytic strategy within the financial services industry preferred
·  Exceptional interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
·  Strong collaboration, organizational skills, and attention to detail
·  Must be self-motivated with the ability to work independently or within a group
·  Intellectually curious. You adapt to change, embrace bold ideas, ask questions, test assumptions, and challenge conventional thinking
·  Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, the ability to analyze complex issues, develop innovative solutions, and make data-driven decisions
·  Proficiency in data analysis and deriving meaningful insights for decision-making
·  Ability to work under tight deadlines
·  Ability to manage multiple initiatives and competing priorities, meet deadlines, and adapt to change
·  Proficiency with Google Suite and/or Microsoft Office products
·  Strong team player