AVP, Strategy Sciences (L11)

Job Description:

Role Title: AVP, Strategy Sciences (L11)

Company Overview: Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a premier consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry’s most complete digitally enabled product suites. Our experience, expertise and scale encompass a broad spectrum of industries including digital, health and wellness, retail, telecommunications, home, auto, outdoors, pet and more.

• We have recently been ranked #2 among India’s Best Companies to Work for by Great Place to Work. We were among the Top 50 India’s Best Workplaces in Building a Culture of Innovation by All by GPTW and Top 25 among Best Workplaces in BFSI by GPTW. We have also been recognized by AmbitionBox Employee Choice Awards among the Top 20 Mid-Sized Companies, ranked #3 among Top Rated Companies for Women, and Top-Rated Financial Services Companies.

• We provide best-in-class employee benefits and programs that cater to work-life integration and overall well-being.

• We provide career advancement and upskilling opportunities, for all to take up leadership roles.

Organizational Overview: Credit Team decisions credit actions across the lifecycle of a customer – from acquisition to account management to collections and recover – we work towards managing credit and fraud losses and elevating customer experience through powerful and proprietary insights on customer risk and credit behaviours. The actionable insights are driven by access to numerous alternative data sources, new age technologies, focused strategies, emerging algorithms, and predictive precision. Spread across 10 pillars the credit team in India caters to the entire gamut of decision sciences, from data management to model development to strategy design, and bringing it all to life through technology, and managing within the guardrails of our regulatory requirements. As part of the team, you will have access to some unique product propositions, functional and leadership training, interaction with executive leadership team and a myriad of diverse perspectives.
 

Role Summary/Purpose:

This AVP role sits within the Strategy Sciences team and is responsible for shaping data-driven strategies that enable sustainable customer growth, optimize portfolio performance, and drive enterprise business outcomes. The role combines advanced analytics, strategic thinking, and business leadership to identify emerging opportunities, influence decision-making, and deliver measurable impact across Acquisition and Account Management functions spanning Credit and Fraud.
Reporting to the VP, Strategy Sciences, the AVP will lead high-impact strategy science initiatives by leveraging advanced analytics, experimentation, machine learning, and deep business insights to solve complex business problems. The individual will partner closely with senior business leaders, model development teams, technology organizations, and cross-functional stakeholders to define strategic priorities, translate insights into scalable solutions, and accelerate business value through data-driven decisioning.
This position is designed for a strategic individual who can independently lead multiple complex initiatives, influence senior stakeholders without direct authority, mentor junior team members, and drive execution from ideation through implementation while balancing business objectives, customer experience, and regulatory considerations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategy opportunity identification & business diagnostics : Partner with Acquisition and Account Management leadership to identify strategic opportunities that drive customer growth, portfolio optimization, and loss mitigation. Leverage advanced analytics, anomaly detection, and performance monitoring to uncover emerging trends, quantify business impact, and shape strategic priorities.

• Strategic problem framing & solution design : Lead the translation of complex business challenges into analytical frameworks, hypotheses, experimentation strategies, and success metrics. Influence decision-making by aligning analytical approaches with business objectives and long-term strategic goals.

• Advanced analytics & strategy science leadership : Lead the design and execution of sophisticated analytics initiatives spanning data exploration, feature engineering, segmentation, predictive modeling, machine learning, deep-dive analyses, and pattern recognition to deliver scalable business solutions and actionable insights.

• Executive recommendations & strategic storytelling : Develop executive-ready narratives that synthesize analytical findings into clear business recommendations, impact sizing, trade-offs, implementation roadmaps, and measurable outcomes, enabling informed prioritization and strategic decision-making.

• Experimentation & test-and-learn leadership : Drive experimentation frameworks and test-and-learn strategies by defining targeting methodologies, measurement frameworks, success criteria, and post-implementation evaluations. Continuously refine strategies based on performance insights to maximize business value.

• Cross-functional leadership & stakeholder management : Partner closely with Product, Technology, Model Development, Data, and Business Strategy teams to influence roadmaps, improve data and decisioning capabilities, enable scalable implementation, and ensure successful delivery of enterprise initiatives.

• Innovation & thought leadership : Champion innovative analytical approaches, emerging methodologies, and best practices in strategy science while mentoring junior team members and fostering a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making.

Required Skills/Knowledge:

• Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience in data analytics/strategy within Credit, Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services, or in lieu of a Bachelor's degree, 7+ years of data analytics/data sciences in Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services. 

• 5+ years of experience using statistical/analytics tools such as SAS, SQL, Python and/or visualization tools (e.g., Tableau).

• Expert-level proficiency with Presentation and Excel.

• 3+ years of experience supporting retail lending products (e.g., credit cards, installment loans, unsecured lending).

• Demonstrated ability to work through uncertainty, collaborate respectfully across teams, and drive issues to resolution.

• Strong understanding of the consumer lending lifecycle, credit card portfolios, customer acquisition, portfolio management, and decisioning strategies, with the ability to translate business objectives into data-driven solutions.

• Demonstrated experience leading high-impact analytics, strategy science, or data science initiatives that drive measurable business outcomes within a strategy, risk, fraud, or decisioning environment.

• Advanced analytical toolkit with expert proficiency in SQL and SAS, and strong working knowledge of Python (or equivalent programming languages) for advanced analytics, machine learning, automation, and scalable solution development.

• Proven experience in customer segmentation, predictive modeling, experimentation, optimization techniques, performance measurement, and strategy development.

• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills with the ability to frame ambiguous business problems, develop analytical approaches, and translate insights into actionable business recommendations.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex priorities independently, lead end-to-end initiatives, and deliver results in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.

• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills with a proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive alignment across cross-functional teams without direct authority.

• Experience partnering with Business Strategy, Product, Technology, Model Development, Data Engineering, and Operations teams to deliver scalable analytical solutions and enterprise capabilities.

• Strong understanding of decisioning frameworks, strategy/policy development, test-and-learn methodologies, KPI design, and performance measurement frameworks.

• Advanced proficiency in Excel, Presentations, data visualization, and executive storytelling, with the ability to communicate complex analytical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Desired Skills/Knowledge:

• Experience applying advanced statistical and machine learning techniques (e.g., logistic regression, tree-based models, ensemble methods, clustering, optimization, neural networks) to solve complex business problems.

• Experience building scalable analytical assets, including reusable code, standardized metrics, automated reporting, dashboards, and monitoring frameworks that improve organizational efficiency and decision quality.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to develop executive-ready presentations and synthesize complex analyses into clear strategic recommendations.

• Demonstrated experience leading large cross-functional projects, managing multiple concurrent workstreams, dependencies, timelines, and stakeholder expectations from ideation through implementation.

• Experience mentoring analysts or data scientists and providing technical leadership, coaching, and best-practice guidance across projects and teams.

• Familiarity with consumer and/or commercial lending products, credit risk, fraud, customer lifecycle management, and portfolio optimization strategies.

• Exposure to cloud-based analytics platforms, big data technologies, or modern data ecosystems (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, Spark, Hadoop, or similar) is preferred.

• Passion for innovation and continuous improvement, with the ability to identify emerging analytical methodologies and translate them into practical business applications.

Eligibility Criteria: Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience in data analytics/strategy within Credit, Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services, or in lieu of a Bachelor's degree, 7+ years of data analytics/data sciences in Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services. 

Work Timings: 2PM to 11PM IST. 

For Internal Applicants:

• Understand the criteria or mandatory skills required for the role, before applying

• Inform your manager and HRM before applying for any role on Workday

• Ensure that your professional profile is updated (fields such as education, prior experience, other skills) and it is mandatory to upload your updated resume (Word or PDF format)

• Must not be any corrective action plan (First Formal/Final Formal, LPP)

• L9+ Employees who have completed 18 months in the organization and 12 months in current role and level are only eligible.

• L09+ Employees can apply.

Grade/Level: 11

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