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Data Scientist (Ai-Native) — Growth & Credit

Umba

full time Nairobi Posted 17 hours ago

Skills and Qualifications

  • 4+ years of hands-on data science / applied ML in production environments

  • Strong Python (pandas, scikit-learn, numpy) and SQL — you can go from raw data to deployed model without waiting on engineering

  • Deep practical experience with classifier and regression modeling — feature engineering, model selection, calibration, evaluation under class imbalance

  • Solid applied statistics: hypothesis testing, regression, experimental design, dealing with selection bias and censored outcomes

  • Experience working with messy real-world financial data (transactional data, bank statements, payments, credit bureau data) — or strong evidence you can ramp on it quickly

  • Comfort with relational databases (Postgres / MySQL) and modern data tools

  • Strong written and verbal communication — you can explain a model's behaviour to a credit officer, a marketer, and an engineer in the same week

Credit & underwriting**

  • Build, deploy, and continuously improve credit scoring models using bank statement data, payment

  • histories, CRB pulls, and in-app behavioural signals

  • Design automated underwriting flows that serve both digitally acquired customers and salessourced applications

  • Implement model retraining pipelines so scoring improves as we accumulate repayment outcomess - not as a quarterly project

  • Own model performance monitoring, drift detection, and automated alerting

  • Partner with Risk and Operations on policy thresholds, override rules, and the human-in-the-loop processes that wrap the models

Growth & marketing analytics**

  • Optimize ad targeting across our acquisition channels — audience selection, bid strategy, creative performance, lookalike construction

  • Instrument and analyze the acquisition funnel end-to-end (impression → click → install → KYC → first loan → repayment)

  • Design and run A/B tests on acquisition and product experiences; build the experimentation infrastructure so the team can run tests without you

  • Build attribution and LTV/CAC models that the business can actually act on Cross-cutting

  • Write clear technical specs that AI-assisted workflows can execute against

  • Use AI tools (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) to move 10x faster on data wrangling, feature engineering, and analysis — while rigorously validating outputs

  • Extend our data platform with new sources (third-party APIs, CRB providers, payment rails) when a model needs them

  • Process, clean, and verify data integrity — especially for anything that touches lending decisions

  • Present findings clearly to non-technical stakeholders; defend recommendations with data