Data Scientist

What you need to know about the role This is a pivotal Data Scientist position within the Global Merchant Lending (GML) organization at PayPal, focusing on the design and optimization of Underwriting strategies for PayPal Working Capital. In this role, you will be at the forefront of developing innovative credit risk solutions, leveraging large and complex datasets to drive business decisions and strategy improvements. As part of our dedicated team, you will have the opportunity to: Develop and Optimize Underwriting Strategies: Utilize advanced data analytics and machine learning techniques to create, evaluate, and refine credit risk underwriting models, ensuring they align with our business objectives and risk appetite. Work with Large, Complex Datasets: Handle extensive datasets, extracting meaningful insights and identifying trends that influence credit risk decisions. Your expertise in SQL and Python will be instrumental in data manipulation, analysis, and model development. Collaborate Across Teams: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including Risk Management, Product, Engineering, and Finance, to implement and monitor underwriting strategies that enhance customer experience while managing risk effectively. Meet our team The Global Merchant Lending (GML) team at PayPal is at the heart of managing the risk associated with our merchant lending portfolio. Our primary focus is on the strategic development, continuous monitoring, and enhancement of risk management capabilities to ensure the robustness and growth of our lending products.

Your Way to Impact

In this Data Scientist role within the Global Merchant Lending (GML) team, your work will have a direct and significant impact on the success and evolution of PayPal's merchant lending offerings. Here's how you can make a difference:

Drive Innovation in Underwriting: By developing and optimizing data-driven underwriting strategies, you'll play a key role in shaping how we assess and manage credit risk. Your contributions will directly influence the efficiency, scalability, and fairness of our lending decisions, enabling us to serve a broader range of merchants effectively.
Enhance Risk Management: Your expertise in analyzing large datasets and applying advanced analytics will allow us to identify and mitigate potential risks before they impact our portfolio. By continuously improving our risk monitoring capabilities, you'll help safeguard our business and our customers against unforeseen financial challenges.
Leverage Open Banking: With your understanding of Open Banking, you'll introduce new dimensions to our risk assessment processes. By integrating external financial data, you can help us gain deeper insights into our customers' financial health, leading to more informed lending decisions and potentially opening up new avenues for product innovation.
Collaborate for Success: Your ability to work across teams will foster a culture of collaboration and innovation within PayPal. By partnering with product, engineering, compliance, and finance teams, you'll ensure that our risk management strategies are not only effective but also aligned with our overall business goals and regulatory requirements.
Empower Small Businesses: Ultimately, your work will contribute to the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by providing them with the financial support they need to grow and thrive. Through your efforts in optimizing our lending solutions, you'll be directly supporting economic growth and job creation in communities around the world.

Your day-to-day

As a Data Scientist in the Global Merchant Lending (GML) team at PayPal, your daily activities will be diverse and impactful, revolving around the use of data science and analytics to drive the success of our merchant lending products. Here's a glimpse into your day-to-day responsibilities:

• Data Analysis and Insights: Spend a significant portion of your day analyzing large, complex datasets using SQL and Python. You'll extract actionable insights, identify trends, and uncover patterns that inform our underwriting and risk management strategies.

• Strategy Formulation: Translate data-driven insights into actionable underwriting and risk management strategies. You'll participate in brainstorming sessions, strategy meetings, and presentations where your analytical insights will guide decision-making.

• Performance Monitoring: Regularly monitor the performance of existing underwriting models and risk strategies, conducting thorough analyses to identify areas for improvement. You'll also develop and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of the strategies you help implement.

• Documentation and Reporting: Document your findings, methodologies, and model specifications clearly and concisely. You'll also prepare reports and presentations for both technical and non-technical stakeholders, ensuring that insights and recommendations are communicated effectively.

What do you need to bring:-

• Strong Problem-Solving Skills: You should have a natural curiosity and the ability to tackle complex problems creatively and efficiently. A knack for dissecting challenges into manageable parts and applying logical, data-driven methodologies to find solutions is crucial.

• Proficiency in Python: Advanced knowledge of Python, particularly in data analysis and manipulation libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, and Scikit-learn, is essential. You should be comfortable writing efficient, clean, and reusable code to perform complex data analyses and model development.

• Motivation and Proactivity: We're looking for someone who is not just reactive but also proactive in identifying opportunities for improvement and innovation. Your self-driven nature and strong work ethic will enable you to take initiative and drive projects to completion.

• Open Banking Knowledge: Understanding of Open Banking principles, APIs, and their application in credit risk assessment is highly valued. Your familiarity with how to leverage external financial data in enriching our risk models and strategies will be a significant asset.

• SQL Expertise: You should have a comprehensive grasp of SQL for querying, manipulating, and analyzing large datasets stored in relational databases. The ability to efficiently extract and work with data from various sources is fundamental to this role.

• Analytical Skills for Large Datasets: Experience in handling, cleaning, and analyzing large, complex datasets is crucial. You should be adept at using statistical techniques and data visualization tools to derive meaningful insights and inform business decisions.

**We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don't hesitate to apply.

Our Benefits: At PayPal, we’re committed to building an equitable and inclusive global economy. And we can’t do this without our most important asset—you. That’s why we offer benefits to help you thrive in every stage of life. We champion your financial, physical, and mental health by offering valuable benefits and resources to help you care for the whole you.

We have great benefits including a flexible work environment, employee shares options, health and life insurance and more. To learn more about our benefits please visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com

Who We Are:Click Here to learn more about our culture and community.

PayPal has remained at the forefront of the digital payment revolution for more than 20 years. By leveraging technology to make financial services and commerce more convenient, affordable, and secure, the PayPal platform is empowering more than 400 million consumers and merchants in more than 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. For more information, visit paypal.com.

PayPal provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, PayPal will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at paypalglobaltalentacquisition@paypal.com.

As part of PayPal’s commitment to employees’ health and safety, we have established in-office Covid-19 protocols and requirements, based on expert guidance. Depending on location, this might include a Covid-19 vaccination requirement for any employee whose role requires them to work onsite. Employees may request reasonable accommodation based on a medical condition or religious belief that prevents them from being vaccinated.