# Director of Data Science, Credit & Fraud Risk Modeling at Kafene

- Company: Kafene
- What the company does: Grow your revenue with Kafene. Attract and convert customers from all credit profiles with flexible lease-to-own programs. Backed by Gaingels.
- Company website: https://kafene.com
- Type: Startups
- Level: Principal and up
- Location: New York, NY
- Work setup: Remote
- Pay: $145K to $170K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-08-22
- Apply by: 2026-10-19
- Apply: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kafene/67bc3fe8-e813-40a3-8013-410650c63ece?utm_source=1752vc&utm_medium=careers
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/kafene-director-of-data-science-credit-and-fraud-risk-modeling/

## About the role

Feature Engineering: Go beyond surface-level signals — you'll mine internal and external datasets to engineer high-signal features (DTI, PTI, payment behavior, account balance patterns) that directly improve the predictive power of production credit models. Your work here changes approval outcomes for real customers. Found on 1752vc Careers, the job board for startup and VC roles.

## What they're looking for

- Advanced Python for statistical modeling and ML — not primarily for application development or infrastructure engineering
- Strong SQL for data extraction and feature construction
- Deep expertise in ML algorithms purpose-built for structured/tabular data: gradient boosting, ensemble methods, regression models, decision trees, and AutoML frameworks
- Industry Background: Prior experience in consumer lending, fintech, or financial services is highly preferred, you should already understand what DTI, PTI, and vintage analysis mean without needing context
- Governance: Hands-on experience with model risk governance frameworks and working alongside validation teams, you know the SR 11-7 world and aren't intimidated by it
- Communication: You can explain a gradient boosting model to a risk committee and a credit policy tradeoff to an engineer. Both matter here

Tags: Risk

Source: 1752vc Careers, https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/kafene-director-of-data-science-credit-and-fraud-risk-modeling/