About the role
About the Role At SumUp, we're on a mission to empower small businesses across the globe by providing a vast set of simple and affordable business tools to help them start, run, and grow their businesses . Lending at SumUp is a mature, scaled business with a strong and proven credit risk foundation . Our core models and decisioning frameworks are already robust and in production; as our portfolio grows, our challenge is safely extracting marginal gains from a complex system where changes are incremental and the stakes are high . As a Senior Data Scientist , you will be highly hands-on and embedded in day-to-day lending decisions . This role exists to strengthen our ability to improve what already works, reduce operational risk, and ensure long-term reliability as we scale into new markets . You will work within the Credit Risk Analytics (CRA) team, a streamlined group responsible for the modeling and analytics that underpin our global lending portfolio. What you'll do Optimise Credit Risk Models: Iterate on existing models to improve stability, predictive power, and net revenue impact while performing deep dives to support risk decisions . Drive End-to-End Deployment: Develop, test, and deploy new model versions in close collaboration with Credit Risk Engineering (CRE), ensuring no regressions or operational issues . Enhance ML Infrastructure: Improve machine learning pipelines and workflows to reduce maintenance overhead and failure modes . Integrate New Data: Evaluate and integrate new internal and external data sources (e.g., credit bureaus, open banking) into existing models and processes . Monitor Performance: Closely monitor models in production, investigating performance shifts or anomalies to maintain portfolio integrity . Promote Technical Excellence: Document work clearly and participate in code reviews, design discussions, and pair programming to maintain high-quality standards . What makes you great for this position 5+ years of experience as a Data Scientist (or 7+ years in data-related/software engineering fields with at least 3 years in Data Science) . MUST HAVE experience working with Credit Risk. Deep understanding of Data Science principles, including statistics, probability theory, and machine learning concepts . Strong experience with Python (pandas, PySpark, scikit-learn) and SQL for complex data retrieval and manipulation Proven track record of building, evaluating, and deploying machine learning models end-to-end at scale . Experience with credit risk assessment, lending, or financial decisioning models . Strong software engineering practices, including writing clean, maintainable, testable code with version control and documentation . Collaborative and respectful team player who is comfortable voicing disagreements while committing to team decisions ("disagree and commit") . Fluency in English with the ability to communicate technical findings clearly to diverse stakeholders . Why you should join SumUp