AI Innovation and Development, Lead Scientist

FICO (NYSE: FICO) is a leading global analytics software company, helping businesses in 100+ countries make better decisions. Join our world-class team today and fulfill your career potential! The Opportunity In this role, you will be a member of a highly talented team of engineers and scientists enabling advanced predictive models deployed into cloud-based real-time transaction processing systems. You will be a contributor to FICO products and strategic initiatives that involve analytic innovation with a strong focus on building, testing, and deploying advanced analytics for the FICO Platform. You will have the opportunity to build industry leading solutions and stay at the forefront of modern AI and ML technologies. What You’ll Contribute Contribute to the requirements and development of advanced distributed ML architectures, pipelines, tools, infrastructure, and algorithms that scale up to support both production execution and development of real-time predictive analytics on large volumes of high-throughput transactional data. Integrate and evaluate advanced ML technologies, platforms and frameworks. Balance performance and cost constraints. Establish strong processes, quality controls, and ethical standards for PII and IP protection, analytic development, and product delivery. Interact and collaborate with cross functional teams (Software Development, QA, Professional Services, IT, Product Management, Sales, and Product Support), drive and influence analytic and software designs decisions to ensure successful integration of analytic models into FICO Platform. Mentor junior engineers and scientists. Travel and work outside of normal business hours as business dictates. What We’re Seeking M.S. or Ph.D. degree in computer science, engineering, physics, or a related technical field Industry experience with a proven success record in analytic software, data engineering, or machine learning; experience working with cloud-based and distributed architectures, large real-world datasets, and production software or analytics. Strong competency in two or more programming languages such as C, C++, Java, or Python; experience working with distributed computing platforms and frameworks, SQL and no-SQL databases. Strong knowledge of computer science fundamentals, software design principles, and best practices such as agile development, unit testing, version control, and continuous integration. Experience working in Linux environment and working proficiency with Linux scripting languages. Experience building predictive analytic models and data analysis; working knowledge of machine learning fundamentals, mathematics, statistics, and algorithms. Strong problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to mentor engineers, influence technical direction, and collaborate across disciplines. Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and container orchestration using Docker and Kubernetes. Experience with testing frameworks, A/B testing, performance optimization, and production monitoring and observability practices (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, OpenTelemetry). Familiarity with AI governance practices: model explainability, prompt versioning, evaluation logging, and audit-readiness in regulated environments. Background in fintech, financial services, insurance, or other regulated domains where model accountability and compliance are paramount. Our O ffer t o You An inclusive culture strongly reflecting our core values: Act Like an Owner, Delight Our Customers and Earn the Respect of Others. The opportunity to make an impact and develop professionally by leveraging your unique strengths and participating in valuable learning experiences. Highly competitive compensation, benefits and rewards programs that encourage you to bring your best every day and be recognized for doing so. An engaging, people-first work environment offering work/life balance, employee resource groups, and social events to promote interaction and camaraderie. The targeted base pay range for this role is: $122,500 to $192,500 with this range reflecting differences in candidate knowledge, skills and experience. Why Make a Move to FICO? At FICO, you can develop your career with a leading organization in one of the fastest-growing fields in technology today – Big Data analytics. You’ll play a part in our commitment to help businesses use data to improve every choice they make, using advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and much more. FICO makes a real difference in the way businesses operate worldwide: • Credit Scoring — FICO® Scores are used by 90 of the top 100 US lenders. • Fraud Detection and Security — 4 billion payment cards globally are protected by FICO fraud systems. • Lending — 3/4 of US mortgages are approved using the FICO Score. Global trends toward digital transformation have created tremendous demand for FICO’s solutions, placing us among the world’s top 100 software companies by revenue. We help many of the world’s largest banks, insurers, retailers, telecommunications providers and other firms reach a new level of success. Our success is dependent on really talented people – just like you – who thrive on the collaboration and innovation that’s nurtured by a diverse and inclusive environment. We’ll provide the support you need, while ensuring you have the freedom to develop your skills and grow your career. Join FICO and help change the way business thinks! Learn more about how you can fulfil your potential at FICO promotes a culture of inclusion and seeks to attract a diverse set of candidates for each job opportunity. We are an equal employment opportunity employer and we’re proud to offer employment and advancement opportunities to all candidates without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. Research has shown that women and candidates from underrepresented communities may not apply for an opportunity if they don’t meet all stated qualifications. While our qualifications are clearly related to role success, each candidate’s profile is unique and strengths in certain skill and/or experience areas can be equally effective. If you believe you have many, but not necessarily all, of the stated qualifications we encourage you to apply. 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