Manager, Decisioning Models - Retail & Small Business

Requisition ID: 176964

Join a purpose driven winning team, committed to results, in an inclusive and high-performing culture.

The world is changing faster than ever and so are we!

“Big data”, “machine learning” and “AI” are not just buzzwords; they are an ever-increasing part of our daily life. We have decades of data powering hundreds of models deployed across a multitude of systems that are crying out for smart talented team players who are results-oriented, embrace transformational challenges and relish the opportunity to help us turn our vision into reality.

Our goal is to be nothing less than The Leading Bank in The Americas by putting Customers First. Achieving this requires a Winning Team that can build, manage and govern stable high-performing models and provide our business partners with the best analytic insights and advice possible. To put things in perspective, the models that we build underpin automated risk-management decisions and forecasts that impact millions of customers and keep hundreds of $billions safe every single day.

What You'll do in this Role?

As a Manager, you will report directly to a Senior Manager or Director and be a critical member of a team overseeing a portfolio of decisioning models and supporting analytic processes. You will support – from conception through execution and governance – the risk decisioning models used by 2 or more of the bank’s retail and small business product lines, across the entire customer lifecycle. You will collaborate, on a regular basis, with a wide range of stakeholders and internal partners including Model Operations, Product, Risk Strategy & Risk Management, Model Validation and Governance, Technology & Data, Finance, Legal, Compliance and Audit.

Your team will have access to both traditional SAS tools and a modern machine learning stack that includes on-premise GPU computing, open source Jupyter development environments, a Hadoop cluster, containerized API model deployment and data visualization business intelligence tools.

Under the guidance of your Director, your team of risk modeling experts will use these tools to develop advanced risk prediction models that will be used potentially millions of times, every year and therefore need to be not only accurate and precise, but highly stable, explainable, compliant, secure and useful. You will be responsible for understanding the goals & priorities set for you, executing them efficiently with a perpetual eye on quality, asking questions often and delivering results in harmony with your teammates.

Is This Role Right for You?

• You are social, engaging, not afraid to ask questions and relish the opportunity to learn from business partners (the majority of whom will be far less technical than you)
• You look forward to sharing your insights with your peers through high-quality effective verbal and written communications
• You relish the implication and yet also understand the responsibility and weight that comes with the fact that every single time your model is used, it impacts a real human being
• You are committed to quality in everything you do – statistically, process and governance wise
• You understand the difference between accuracy and precision and get excited by really great KS values and ROC curves
• You are comfortable with ambitious but realistic goals and are committed to achieving them
• You are comfortable initiating conversations and collaborating with diverse personalities
• You are both deeply curious and highly pragmatic
• You have a genuine love, passion and talent for programming, data, and predictive modeling
• You are professional, motivated AND FUN. We mean it.
• You believe, first and foremost, in always doing the right thing and doing things the right way

Sample Projects That You Might Work On Include

• Ensure that the data used for model development is reliable and robust and that it adheres to industry and regulatory standards
• Lead the periodic review and maintenance of credit risk models / scorecards
• Identify, promote and lead process improvements for model development and monitoring
• Collaborate with risk management teams, external vendors, technology, and country risk counterparts as well as other stakeholders (i.e. audit, product) to ensure consistent and effective governance, measurement and communication of models / scorecards and their performance
• Complete specialized analysis, develop creative statistical solutions and recommend improvements to estimation techniques, risk rating systems and/or internal or vendor-developed credit risk models
• Conduct research of new innovative modeling methodologies, tools and regulatory requirements; develop new methodologies for model development, monitoring and reporting

What Are We Looking For?

We want talented pragmatic analytically oriented data scientists who are equally at home interpreting and applying statistics as they are ingesting and massaging data, translating regulatory requirements into models and explaining complex issues in simple concise ways. We want bright and energetic minds who come armed with a bottomless sense of curiosity about everything (great models and analytics are about so much more than just the numbers!), a passion for getting things done right – the first time – and a deep sense of personal and professional accountability.

To be a Manager in Retail Models & Analytics, it isn’t enough to just be a great model developer (though that is incredibly important as well); you also need to be a collaborative team player who actively listens to stakeholders and customers because you are passionate about helping them win and you need to be interested in building something lasting and great. Working with customers across the bank to understand and translate their needs into outcomes, exploring both novel and legacy data sets and methodologies, collaborating with technology partners to get things implemented flawlessly, and monitoring, tuning up (when necessary), and governing the models that your team “owns” will all be equally important.

We are results driven, we work hard, we play hard, we nerd out and we bring service, smiles and solutions to every problem that we face; so should you.

Do you have the skills that will enable you to succeed in this role?

General

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering or an equivalent technical field
• Able to work remotely and on-site on multiple activities simultaneously and meet deadlines
• A demonstrated history of analytic problem solving and sound judgment
• Strong English-language verbal and written communications skills: the ability to distill abstract business requirements into analysis, concisely convey technical outcomes, tell a story visually with data, prepare and edit high-quality documentation and be accepted as a trusted advisor by peers
• Experience as an analyst or data scientist with a track record of accomplishments working on cross-functional teams

Technical

• Highly proficient in 1 or more analytical programming languages (Python, R, SAS, etc.), SQL (Teradata, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server) and multiple environments (Unix & Windows)
• 1 or more years of experience with big data platforms / integration (Hadoop, Spark, Hive, Avro)
• 2+ years of overall experience in analytic roles developing and using predictive, risk and/or forecasting models
• Strong fundamental understanding of statistics
• Knowledge of credit risk models / scorecards

Nice To Have's

• FRM, CFA credentials
• Experience developing credit risk models / scorecards
• Domain expertise with any retail & small business banking products and/or risk management practices
• Experience training and deploying machine learning models using common Python open source frameworks (i.e., scikit-learn) and/or Python DevOps
• Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, PowerBI) power user
• Experience working with FICO / TSYS / CGI decision systems (TRIAD, OM, ACE, CACS)
• Proficient reading, writing and speaking Spanish (not required)

What's In it For You?

• We have an inclusive and collaborative work environment that values curiosity & ownership, encourages pragmatic creativity (i.e. true innovation), and celebrates success!
• Multiple career paths and innumerable progression opportunities. We hire you for your talent and not just for the job. We want to see you succeed not just in your role but in your career as a whole
• Access to thousands of online and in person courses so you can brush up on skills, or learn new ones
• A competitive compensation package
• You'll get to work with and learn from an incredibly friendly and diverse group of accomplished leaders

Location(s): Canada : Ontario : Toronto

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.

At Scotiabank, we value the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Bank, and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. If you require accommodation (including, but not limited to, an accessible interview site, alternate format documents, ASL Interpreter, or Assistive Technology) during the recruitment and selection process, please let our Recruitment team know. If you require technical assistance, please click here. Candidates must apply directly online to be considered for this role. We thank all applicants for their interest in a career at Scotiabank; however, only those candidates who are selected for an interview will be contacted.