Senior Machine Learning Scientist

Dave vs. Goliath. We’re Dave.

Dave is a financial app on a mission to build products that level the financial playing field. It is redefining the financial landscape by leveraging technology to create an affordable, transparent, and user-centric access to liquidity for millions of Americans. As a leading innovator in the U.S. financial services sector, Dave’s digital financial platform offers products designed to meet the credit needs of those underserved by traditional financial institutions. Dave’s offerings include its flagship ExtraCash product, providing members up to $500 within minutes. The company is on track to launch several new product offerings in 2026, including a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) option.

Dave is focused on serving Americans who are financially vulnerable or living paycheck to paycheck. Dave is leading the charge in creating a new era of credit products that prioritizes speed, affordability, and accessibility, making it the go-to financial partner for those who need it most.

We’re looking for a Senior Machine Learning Scientist to help shape underwriting and credit science across ExtraCash, FlexCard, and Rent.

The Opportunity

You’ll work at the intersection of consumer credit, machine learning, AI, analytics, and product strategy. You’ll develop and improve the models, policies, and decision strategies that determine how we responsibly extend access across multiple products and stages of the credit lifecycle.

Dave uses cash-flow, income, behavioral, bureau, and other alternative data to understand members differently than traditional lenders. This role gives you meaningful ownership over how we turn that data into scalable credit decisions while balancing growth, credit performance, unit economics, compliance, and member outcomes.

As a new role on the team, you’ll also have the opportunity to shape how we use modern AI tools across the ML development lifecycle.

What You’ll Build and Own

• Develop and optimize underwriting, settlement, and collection strategies across ExtraCash, FlexCard, and Rent, translating risk appetite into policies, decision rules, exposure strategies, and portfolio guardrails.

• Build ML- and AI-enabled credit strategies using cash-flow, income, behavioral, bureau, and alternative data, with ownership of methodology, validation, and production recommendations.

• Design rigorous experimentation and evaluation frameworks, including success metrics, scenario analyses, guardrails, and launch recommendations.

• Partner with Product, Engineering, ML Platform, Finance, Legal, and Compliance to develop scalable decisioning solutions and improve strategies throughout the credit lifecycle.

• Monitor portfolio and business performance, identify emerging opportunities or risks, and translate analysis into clear recommendations.

• Build reusable modeling, analytics, and AI-assisted workflows that improve development, testing, validation, documentation, and monitoring.

The Impact

Your work will directly influence how Dave expands responsible access to financial products while maintaining sustainable credit performance. The decisions you help shape will affect member experience, portfolio economics, and Dave’s ability to build differentiated products at scale.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in consumer credit risk, underwriting, settlement and collection, machine learning, or predictive analytics, ideally in fintech or consumer lending.

• Strong hands-on experience with statistical modeling, machine learning, experimentation, and production decision systems.

• Proficiency in Python and SQL.

• Experience developing credit strategies across the product lifecycle, from new-product launches through mature portfolios.

• Deep understanding of credit policy, risk appetite, portfolio management, credit performance monitoring, and settlement and collection.

• Experience working with cash-flow, income, behavioral, bureau, or other alternative data.

• Experience using AI-assisted tools across research, coding, analysis, model development, testing, or documentation while maintaining strong judgment over output quality.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical and credit decisions to senior and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in a quantitative discipline such as computer science, mathematics, statistics, economics, or engineering.

Bonus: PhD in a quantitative discipline.

What Makes Someone Successful Here

You take responsibility for outcomes, not just models or analyses. You connect technical decisions to member experience and business performance, make thoughtful trade-offs, and build approaches that hold up over time. When the path isn’t fully defined, you use data and judgment to help shape it.

You also work well across disciplines. You invite feedback, communicate your reasoning clearly, and help other scientists strengthen their work. As new information changes the problem, you adjust without losing sight of the broader goal.

What to Expect

You’ll have meaningful autonomy and a high degree of ownership. Decisions are data-driven, priorities will evolve as we learn, and you’ll work closely with partners across Dave to turn analysis into durable production solutions.

Why Join Dave

You’ll help shape credit decisions across multiple growing products, work with differentiated alternative data, and influence both technical systems and business strategy. You’ll have room to build new approaches, improve how the team works, and contribute directly to products designed for members who are often underserved by traditional financial institutions.

Ready to build for the underdog?

Reports to: Sr. Manager, Underwriting and Credit Science

Don’t let imposter syndrome get in the way of an incredible opportunity. We’re looking for people who can help us achieve our mission and vision, not just check off the boxes. If you’re excited about this role, we encourage you to apply. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles.

Why you’ll love working here: 

At Dave, our people are just as important as our product. Our culture reflects the values that guide who we are, how we work, and what we aspire to be. Daves are member-centric, helpful, transparent, persistent, and better together. We strive to create an environment where all Daves feel valued, heard, and empowered to do their best work. As a virtual-first company, team members can live and work anywhere in the United States, except Hawaii. 

A few of our benefits & perks:

💚 Opportunity to tackle tough challenges, learn and grow from fellow top talent, and help millions of people reach their personal financial goals

💻 Flexible hours and virtual-first work culture with a home office stipend

🏥 Premium Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance plans

👶 Generous paid parental and caregiver leave

💰 401(k) savings plan with matching contributions

📈 Financial advisor and financial wellness support

🏖️ Flexible PTO and generous company holidays, including Juneteenth and Winter Break

🎉 All-company in-person events once or twice a year and virtual events throughout to connect with your team members and leadership team

Dave Operating LLC is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and is dedicated to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We will consider for employment all qualified applicants and do not discriminate on any basis protected by federal, state, or local law, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history.

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