Staff Data Scientist, Credit Strategy

Headquartered in San Diego, Mulligan Funding serves as a leading provider of working capital (Up to $5M) to the small and medium-sized businesses that fuel our country. Since 2008, we have prided ourselves on our collaborative, innovative, and customer-focused approach. Enjoying a period of unprecedented growth, driven by the combination of cutting-edge technology, human touch, and unwavering integrity, we are looking to add to our people first culture, with highly motivated and results-oriented professionals, to push the limits of what's possible while creating value for all of our partners.

Mulligan Funding deploys a powerful combination of statistically grounded credit strategy and robust manual underwriting to deliver credit performance aligned with our risk appetite while providing an outstanding customer experience.

The Staff Data Scientist, Credit Strategy is a key member of the Risk Management team, responsible for designing, deploying, and optimizing end-to-end credit strategies that balance growth, profitability, and credit risk. This role plays a critical part in maximizing credit conversion and customer lifetime value while ensuring portfolio performance remains within established loss tolerances.

This position partners closely with Risk leadership, manual underwriting, Product, Engineering, and Data Science teams to build scalable, data-driven credit strategies that support sustainable growth and resilient portfolio construction.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule with three days onsite and two days remote each week, with Mondays designated as a mandatory onsite day.

You will:

• Design and deploy innovative approval, qualification, and segmentation strategies that maximize application approval rates while achieving credit loss targets
• Develop and maintain underwriting policies that define minimum acceptance criteria and policy declines for segments outside Mulligan's risk appetite
• Create statistically grounded credit limit assignment frameworks that optimize lifetime customer value while managing downside risk
• Design pricing and interest rate strategies, including testing frameworks, to ensure adequate loss coverage, strong borrower selection, and high customer take-up rates
• Optimize data collection strategies by balancing the information value of data against customer friction and operational cost
• Partner closely with the manual underwriting team to build a hybrid risk framework that integrates analytical strategies with expert manual review, ensuring consistent execution and continuous feedback loops
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Data Science teams to design and deploy scalable infrastructure that enables rapid iteration and refinement of credit strategies
• Establish robust portfolio monitoring and reporting processes to track approval rates, credit performance, and risk metrics against expectations
• Apply a thoughtful, forward-looking approach to portfolio construction to ensure assets are resilient across economic cycles and attractive to debt investors on a risk-adjusted basis
• Incorporate macroeconomic trends and forward-looking risk signals into credit strategy to ensure ongoing relevance in evolving market conditions
• Performs other duties as assigned

You have:

• 5+ years of relevant experience in commercial risk data science and credit strategy within a fintech or banking environment
• At least 3-4 years of hands-on experience designing, calibrating, and managing credit strategies for Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) products; prior MCA credit strategy experience is required
• Strong experience overseeing model deployment, execution, and monitoring within a production environment; ML Ops experience is highly preferred
• Master's degree in Data Science, Statistics, Economics, Finance, or a related quantitative discipline required

We offer:

• Medical, vision, and dental benefits to support you and your family.
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for eligible healthcare and dependent care expenses.
• A 401(k) with matching contributions to help you plan for retirement.
• Paid time off, including sick leave, vacation, and holidays.
• Paid parental leave for growing families.
• A Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA) for athletic and wellness expenses.
• An employer-sponsored Life and AD&D policy, with options for additional coverage.
• A Learning Stipend for professional development activities.
• An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and travel assistance services.
• Complimentary snacks and refreshments in the breakroom.
• A referral program that rewards you for bringing in top talent.
• Company events to connect, celebrate, and grow together.

$180,000 - $250,000 a year

A reasonable estimate of the total compensation range for this role is $180K - $250K per year. Total compensation may include base salary and other forms of compensation, as applicable. In determining compensation, Mulligan Funding considers a variety of factors, including but not limited to market data, relevant experience, skills, education, and certifications.

Mulligan Funding is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) and takes great pride in building a diverse work environment. Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to age, race, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, disability or veteran status.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.