Mission Lane is combining the power of data, technology, and exceptional service to pave a clear way forward for millions of people on the path to financial success. By attracting top talent and leveraging cutting-edge technology, we’re enabling people to unlock real financial progress. Sound like a mission you can get behind?
We're looking for a Senior Data Scientist to build and improve the machine learning models behind Mission Lane's credit decisions.
The impact you'll make:
Behind every “yes” from Mission Lane is a model that had to see past a credit score to the story behind it, the kind of story that doesn't fit neatly into three digits. You'll build and sharpen the models that read that signal right: accurate enough to trust, fair enough to stand behind, and sound enough to move our customers forward.
A lot of our applicants don't have years of clean credit history to lean on, so the standard score alone doesn't get you very far. That means you'll get to dig into the interesting work of figuring out what else predicts repayment.
Mission Lane is still young, but we’ve landed in an exciting, stable stretch of maturation, and you'll learn and grow right along with us.
As Senior Data Scientist you will:
- Design, build, and deploy supervised learning models that power Mission Lane's credit decisions, from first experiment through production
- Partner with credit risk and portfolio teams to translate open business questions into modeling problems, and communicate the trade-offs between them
- Monitor models already in production, catching drift and validating performance so they keep doing what they were built to do
- Apply strong software engineering practices to your modeling work, including test-driven development, code review, and refactoring
- Explore new data sources and modeling approaches using Mission Lane's Python data stack.
Our core tech stack includes:
Python and the Python data stack (numpy, polars, scikit-learn), LightGBM, DVC, Kubernetes, Airflow, Google Cloud, and Chalk, our feature store.
You'll thrive in this role if:
- You're motivated by practical solutions, and curiosity is part of how you work every day.
- You haven't necessarily worked in credit or lending before, but you're excited to learn a domain where regulations and long-horizon predictions matter.
- You're comfortable with the full lifecycle of a model, including the less glamorous parts like data cleanup, monitoring, and validation.
- You work well with people outside data science and can explain a modeling decision in plain language.
Minimum qualifications:
- A degree in a quantitative field and 1+ years of work experience in a related role
- Experience creating, deploying, and managing supervised learning models in a production system
- Experience writing tested, reviewed, reproducible code, for data pipelines and model training alike, working fluently in the Python data stack.
- Familiarity with working at the command line, shell scripting, databases, and cloud computing services
- Ability to travel ~4+ times per year for high quality in-person collaboration
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience solving problems in consumer lending or fintech
- Experience with Airflow, Dagster, or other data pipeline platforms
Compensation:
Annual full-time starting base salary range: $120,000 - $134,000
This role is eligible for additional compensation in the forms of participation in our annual incentive and equity programs.
Pay is based on factors such as work experience, education, certification(s), training, skills, and competencies related to the role. Mission Lane also offers a comprehensive benefits plan, which includes paid time off, 401(k) match, a monthly wellness stipend, health/dental/vision insurance options, disability coverage, paid parental leave, flexible spending account (for childcare and healthcare), life insurance, and a remote-first work environment.
About Mission Lane:
Founded in December 2018, Mission Lane is a purpose-driven fintech company based in the U.S., with headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.
It all started with a realization: nearly fifty percent of the adult population in the U.S. doesn’t have access to a clear line of credit. Most traditional credit card companies either overlook or overcharge this group because they have less-than-perfect credit scores or no scores at all. We decided this just wouldn’t do.
In partnership with our sponsor banks, we offer credit cards under the Mission Lane brand name, with better, clearer terms, and a more refined customer experience than the alternatives available to people working hard to improve their credit. To date, over four million consumers have chosen Mission Lane, earning high customer ratings on Credit Karma for its market segment and industry leading Net Promoter scores.
Mission Lane has cumulatively raised over $600 million of equity from leading investors, including Invus Opportunities, QED Investors, LL Funds, funds affiliated with Oaktree Capital Management, and other leading investors.
Our commitment to a workplace built on respect and dignity is guided by our core value of Unity. We believe that everyone plays a vital role in our shared purpose, and we actively cultivate an environment where all individuals have the opportunity to do their best work. By fostering a culture of empathy and collaboration, we create a strong sense of belonging and support for every team member.
Mission Lane is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other protected status.
Mission Lane provides reasonable accommodations to applicants who need them for medical or religious reasons, as required by law. Applicants can initiate an accommodation request by contacting [email protected].
Mission Lane is not sponsoring new applicant employment authorization and please, no third-party recruiters.
Application Integrity:
Our cardholders trust us with their financial well-being, and this trust starts with the integrity of the people on our team. We're looking for team members who share our dedication to transparency and truth. Please verify that the information in your application is accurate and complete.
Providing any information to Mission Lane that is not completely truthful at any point during the application or hiring process may result in removal from the hiring process, disqualification from future opportunities, withdrawal of an offer or other sanctions for candidates and, in addition for employees, disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.
Skills Required
- Experience creating, deploying, and managing supervised learning models in production for critical applications
- PhD in a quantitative field plus 1+ years of related experience
- BS/MS in a quantitative field plus 3+ years of related experience
- Strong software engineering fundamentals (test-driven development, code review, refactoring)
- Proficiency with the PyData stack (numpy, scikit-learn, pandas)
- Experience with or interest in ML infrastructure and tools (Spark, Kubernetes, Airflow, MLflow, Chalk, BentoML, DVC)
- Ability to collaborate with business leaders and technical experts to develop data sources and modeling methodology
- Experience managing a technical team
- Experience building predictive models end-to-end
- Experience solving problems in consumer lending or fintech
- Interest or experience developing neural network architectures for time series classification
What We Do
Mission Lane is not your average fintech company. We’re on a mission to disrupt the financial industry and normalize treating members like humans. With our unique take on credit, debit, and income discovery, we’re making life easier for millions of Americans, and loving our work every step of the way.
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