Data Scientist - Operations

Hybrid in London, UK

We’re looking for a Data Scientist

As a data scientist in our Operations Strategy team, you’ll help us use data-driven insights to make strategic improvements to the service our Operations teams provide to our customers.

The company

Fast, flexible finance empowers small businesses to manage their cash flow better and seize opportunities - making their business and the economy stronger as a whole. At iwoca, we do just that. We help businesses get the funds they need, when they need it, often within minutes. We’ve already made several billion in funding available to more than 100,000 businesses since we launched in 2012, and positioned ourselves as a leading Fintech in Europe. 

Our mission is to finance one million businesses. We’ll get there by continuing to make our finance ever more relevant and accessible to more businesses by combining cutting-edge technology, data science, and a 5-star customer service.

The role

As a Data Scientist in our Operations Strategy team, the data-driven insights that you produce will help us make strategic improvements to our ways of working in our UK and Germany Operations teams (currently c.180 people, across London, Leeds, and Frankfurt). You will play a crucial role working to set up and analyse tests, and to build statistical models which will allow us to better understand the value of the work carried out by our Operations teams. This allows us to continue improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our Operations teams, all while maintaining an exceptional level of customer service. 

Strategy and innovation:

• You’ll work very closely with the Head of Operations Strategy, Operations staff and other stakeholders to ensure that your work aligns closely with business goals and achieves valuable commercial outcomes. 

• Design experiments to compare the performance of different strategies and evaluate them rigorously to make unbiased decisions.

• Share your findings and modelling with the wider business to impact our strategy. We live and breathe data as a company, so Data Scientists have a key role in the decision-making. 

Ownership and influence:

• Independently build data science solutions and statistical models to solve our business problems, with full responsibility in the solution design.

• Promote analytical rigour within the team, ensuring that our experimental designs are correctly defined and that we evaluate tests without bias.

In-depth expertise:

• Join our community of Analysts/Data Scientists/Statisticians to ensure alignment in methodology across iwoca. You’ll be part of a peer group with whom you can discuss best practices or the latest advances so that you share and deepen your technical expertise 

• Build deep expertise in Operations processes across the full range of the customer journey, from signup through to collections. 

The projects

Here are some examples of projects you might work on:

• Setting up, monitoring and analysing split tests, to help understand the value of operations activities. This could include determining the ROI of different types of outbound calls that are made by our Account Managers and using this to prioritise these calls effectively to maximise the effectiveness of the team.

• Building predictive models based on customer satisfaction data, to determine whether changes that are made to operations' processes genuinely improve customer satisfaction

• Building statistical models to enhance the ability of operations teams to do accurate forecasting and capacity planning

The requirements

Essential:

• A PhD in a relevant numerate discipline or previous experience in solving business problems in industry with statistics or machine learning techniques.

• Ability to dive deep into the business context and translate data into actionable insights.

• Strong problem-solving skills in probability and statistics.

• Proficiency with data manipulation and modelling tools, for example. pandas, statsmodels, and R.

• Self-driven with the capability to efficiently manage projects end-to-end.

• Excellent communication skills, you tailor your communication style and the technical detail according to your audience.

Bonus:

• Python experience (we mostly work in Python). 

• Experience with experimental design and Bayesian analysis.

The salary

The salary range is £60,000 - £90,000 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 brilliant place to work:

• Offices in London, Leeds, and Frankfurt with plenty of drinks and snacks.

• Events and clubs, like bingo, comedy nights, yoga classes, football, etc.

The benefits

• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership, and a private GP service for you, your partner, and your dependents.

• 25 days’ holiday, an extra day off for your birthday, the option to buy or sell an additional 5 days of annual leave, unlimited unpaid leave, and one-month fully paid sabbatical after 4 years.

• Instant access to emotional and mental health support with our partner, Spill.

• Pension and share options.

• Generous parental leave and a nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.

• Paid volunteering day to support your chosen charity.

• Cycle-to-work scheme and electric car 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:

• iwoca benefits & policies

• Interview welcome pack