Data Science - Future Opportunities

Job description

***Join us to build a more rewarding financial future for all Canadians*** At Neo, we’re on a mission to build a more rewarding financial future for all Canadians. Life at a rapidly scaling tech startup isn’t for everyone. It’s complex, fast-paced, high-pressure, but also incredibly fulfilling. Since its founding in 2019, Neo has gained incredible traction and is one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Canada. - [#1 on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 for 2023, 2024, and 2025](https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/neo-financial-achieves-first-ever-three-peat-win-as-number-one-on-deloitte-s-technology-fast-50-list-889692540.html) — *the first company ever to achieve a three-peat at the top!* - [#1 Fastest Growing Company in Canada for 2024 by Globe & Mail](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240927952651/en/Neo-Financial-Ranks-No.-1-on-The-Globe-and-Mail%E2%80%99s-2024-List-of-Canada%E2%80%99s-Top-Growing-Companies) - Top-ranked mobile apps and credit cards - Team of 500+ people - 1M+ customers - 10K+ retail partners ***This posting is intentionally ongoing. It is not a single open role with a start date attached. As Neo's data science organization grows, we keep a pipeline of people we'd want on the team and reach out when a current or emerging opportunity fits.*** **The Role** Neo's data science org sits inside products millions of Canadians already use. Data scientists, analytics leaders, and ML platform engineers work as one embedded function: production models, insight that shapes decisions, and the path from prototype to a monitored service. Not a reporting desk. Not a lab on the side. There's a version of this work that stops at a notebook, a dashboard, or a handoff. Future roles here don't. They run from an ambiguous business question to something that actually runs — through the data, the constraints, and the commercial trade-offs. At this level you frame the problem, ship the work, and stand behind the result. The people in this pipeline have taken models from working to reliable to material. They know a clever fit from a system the business can trust. ## **The work** Neo is rebuilding financial services from scratch. We've shipped a full-stack banking platform (credit cards, savings, mortgages, personal loans, cash back) at a pace most financial institutions can't match in a decade. Data science is inside that loop, not adjacent to it. The problems span credit risk, fraud, marketing and loyalty, executive decisioning, and the ML platform that keeps models alive in production. They run against real financial outcomes for millions of Canadians. Correctness isn't optional. Neither is commercial impact. The work doesn't get easier as we scale. We don't have a handoff culture. You partner with Product, Engineering, Risk, Marketing, Finance, and operations. Models ship. Insights change decisions. You own the path from prototype to something the company can run on. ## **What you'll own** - A meaningful surface area with real business impact : risk, fraud, growth, analytics strategy, or the platform that productizes the work - The full loop: problem framing, method, delivery, and the validation and monitoring that keep it honest after launch - Standards that compound: reproducibility, metric consistency, model governance, and documentation , not one-off heroics - Mentorship that raises the bar: code review, experimental design, and developing the people around you - Cross-functional alignment. You translate. You don't throw work over the wall. ## **What we're looking for** If you're a **Senior, Staff, or Principal Data Scientist**, you own models end to end — design, training, validation, and production. You can defend a validation strategy to a peer who will try to break it, and explain the result to an executive without hiding behind metrics. You mentor. You don't wait for someone else to make the work real. If you **lead analytics**, you are not running a service desk. You set the strategy, build the team, and move the company from reactive reporting to insight that changes decisions. You zoom out to company strategy and zoom in to the pipeline and the spreadsheet. You hold the line on metric definitions, experimentation, and quality when the business wants the number yesterday. If you **build ML platforms**, you own the path from experiment to production — pipelines, observability, drift, registries, infrastructure-as-code. You make data scientists faster without lowering the bar. You've run production ML on cloud infrastructure, and you treat reliability as part of the model, not a follow-up project. At every level: - Deep technical fluency in Python and SQL, and enough cloud and data-platform literacy to ship, not just present - Experience in fintech, lending, payments, or another regulated environment where a wrong number has consequences - A track record of taking things from working to reliable to growing — through ambiguity, not around it - Low ego, high standards: you do the unglamorous work and hold others to the same ## **How we hire for this role** We're looking for a rare combination and we won't compromise on fit to move fast. Applying here puts your profile in front of our team and keeps you in consideration as our data science organization grows. It doesn't guarantee an immediate interview, and it won't lock you to a single role. If your background matches a current or emerging opportunity, we'll reach out directly. We aim to respond to every application, but given the selective nature of this search, timelines may vary. ## **Working at Neo:** The people who thrive at Neo are resourceful, growth-oriented, and driven to win. We hold ourselves to high standards because we’re on a mission that matters: to build a more rewarding financial future for all Canadians. As individuals and as a team, we constantly challenge ourselves and each other to raise the bar and deliver exceptional experiences for our customers. Our commitment to customer success drives everything we do, from building world-class products to providing exceptional support at every step of their journey. If this resonates with you, keep reading. We trust, respect, and support each other. This means honest conversations, constructive input, and empowering each other to move fast and think big. You’ll be surrounded by people who push you to be your best. We primarily collaborate in person across our Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto offices, where ideas move quickly and teams build momentum together. As we continue to scale and evolve, we’re looking for builders, innovators, and problem solvers who thrive on challenge–people who would rather blaze a trail through uncertainty than follow a well-paved path. At Neo, ownership is part of how we think and operate. For select roles, equity participation reinforces that mindset by giving employees a direct stake in the company’s long-term success. Regardless of role, every team member is expected to think like an owner and make decisions that move the business forward. ## **Apply with us:** We believe in equal opportunity and are committed to creating an inclusive climate where everyone can thrive. Customers trust us with their finances, so successful candidates for this position will be required to undergo a security screening, including a criminal records check and a credit check. By continuing with your application, you agree to the [Candidate Privacy Notice](https://www.neofinancial.com/candidate-privacy-policy.pdf), which guides how we process your personal information for the purpose of your application. Neo Financial leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to reinforce our candidate evaluation process, including the initial assessment of applications and screening of candidates. These tools support our recruitment team; however, all final hiring decisions are made by humans and are not based exclusively on automated processing. If you require further information regarding our data processing practices, please contact us. We are hiring for an open, vacant position.