Data Scientist - Lending Strategy (Team Germany) Hybrid in London, United Kingdom
The company Imagine a world where every small business has the power to thrive. That's the world we're building at iwoca. Small businesses aren't just statistics – they're the heartbeat of our communities, the character of our high streets, and the engine of our economy. Since 2012, we've revolutionised how these businesses access finance, turning what was once a lengthy, frustrating process into something remarkable: funding that's fast, flexible, and actually works for modern businesses.
Our impact speaks for itself: we've provided billions in funding to more than 150,000 businesses across Europe, making us one of the continent's leading fintech innovators. But we're just getting started. Our mission? To empower one million businesses with the financial tools they deserve.
We combine cutting‑edge technology and data science with genuine human understanding to make finance feel less like a barrier and more like a super‑power. Whether a business is managing cash flow or seizing unexpected opportunities, we ensure they get the funds they need – often within minutes.
The function iwoca's Data Scientists specialise in supervised machine learning, statistical inference and exploratory data analysis, focusing on tabular and time‑series data. Our work emphasises quantitative predictions through the analysis of conditional probabilities and expectations, using medium‑sized datasets.
The team Since launching in Germany in 2015, we have provided instant working capital to thousands of SMEs across the region. We have issued more loans than all alternative lenders combined in Germany – and we’re just getting started.
The Lending Strategy Team plays a critical role for the success of the German business, collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders to facilitate growth while ensuring we remain within desired risk appetite levels. This team is responsible for setting and developing the lending strategy end to end for existing and new product initiatives.
The role Model Development
Drive the exploration and integration of innovative modelling methods into our training pipeline to enhance the predictive power and flexibility of credit risk models.
Manage the end‑to‑end model lifecycle, from training and validation through to deployment and ongoing performance monitoring.
Partner with Data Scientists and Analysts across teams to ensure proper consumption of model predictions and to effectively manage model interdependencies.
Model‑driven insights.
Effectively using our modelling and analytics tools (and adding new ones where appropriate) to discover insights. Such insights may be a learning about how our customers behave or the efficacy of a new modelling technique.
Communicating these insights with the broader business to drive value by changing the way iwoca operates.
Project ownership and autonomy.
Independently build data science solutions to iwoca's business problems and be on a trajectory with increasing responsibility in solution design.
Maintain strong communications with stakeholders throughout your work to ensure that your solutions are pragmatically solving the business problem at hand and to get technical feedback for personal growth.
The requirements Essential:
Expertise in probability and statistics, gained through a quantitative field such as Mathematics, Physics, Statistics or similar.
Ability to understand business context and translate data into actionable insights that guide decisions.
Proficiency in Python (e.g. pandas, NumPy, SciPy, statsmodels) or R for data analysis and model development.
Ability to work autonomously and manage projects end to end, from framing the question to delivering outcomes.
Ability to communicate clearly in writing and speech, adapting technical detail to suit different audiences.
Bonus:
Understanding of Bayesian statistics, including experience or interest in applying hierarchical Bayesian models.
Experience building credit risk models or other topics in quantitative finance (e.g. pricing)
Experience building machine learning models from scratch, including creating custom optimisers.
Knowledge of stochastic processes and related mathematical techniques.
Experience working with Python, our primary programming language.
The salary We expect to pay between £45,000 - £55,000 for this role. But, we’re open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly performance and salary reviews.
The culture At iwoca, we prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. We value thought and skill diversity, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us innovate and improve our products and services.
The offices We put a lot of effort into making iwoca a great place to work:
Offices in London, Leeds, Berlin, and Frankfurt with plenty of drinks and snacks
Events and clubs, like bingo, comedy nights, football, etc.
The benefits
Flexible working hours
Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership
A private GP service (separate from Vitality) for you, your partner, and your dependents
25 days’ holiday per year, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional five days of annual leave, and unlimited unpaid leave
A one-month, fully paid sabbatical after four years
Instant access to external counselling and therapy sessions for team members that need emotional or mental health support
3% Pension contributions on total earnings
An employee equity incentive scheme
Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.
Electric car scheme and cycle to work scheme
Two company retreats a year: we’ve been to France, Italy, Spain, and further afield.
And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:
A learning and development budget for everyone
Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers
Access to learning platforms like Treehouse
Useful links 
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