Senior Data Scientist - Credit Risk

We're hiring a Senior Data Scientist - Credit Risk for our team based in Ghana. Your predictive models and data-driven experiments will unlock financial inclusion for millions across Africa. Using SQL, Python/R, and rich transactional datasets, you'll translate complex data into strategic insights that shape how we responsibly serve Every Day Earners.

The Impact 💚

Your analytics will shape executive decisions on risk, pricing, and growth. We've unlocked over $2 billion in credit for 7 million customers by building sophisticated models that serve the traditionally excluded. You'll use advanced analytics to define our risk appetite and credit strategy.

The Opportunity

🎯 Mission-driven fintech: TIME 100 company and Financial Times' Africa's fastest-growing company (2022-2025)

🚀 Data scale: Analyse 1.5 million daily payments across multiple African markets

💡 Advanced analytics: Build predictive models, design A/B tests, run causal analyses with real impact

🌍 Meaningful outcomes: 70% of customers use M-KOPA products for income generation | 2.5 million first-time internet users connected

The Role

Lead advanced credit analytics that inform risk appetite, pricing, and portfolio strategy. Translate data into actionable insights that strengthen credit decision-making and enable sustainable, profitable growth in a rapidly scaling environment.

What You'll Do:

• Lead portfolio-level credit analytics and diagnostics to assess performance, risk concentration, and loss drivers across M-KOPA's consumer finance portfolio, directly informing risk appetite and growth decisions

• Translate complex credit data into executive decision support, delivering clear, actionable insights on credit policy, terms, pricing, and new product or market proposals for senior leadership and country teams

• Design, oversee, and interpret experiments and causal analyses to test credit strategies, improve customer outcomes, and optimise portfolio performance in a fast-scaling fintech environment

• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Data Science, Finance, and Operations to embed analytics into credit decisioning, accelerate product launches, and continuously improve credit systems and processes

What You Need:

Digital Consumer Credit Expertise 6–10 years' experience in digital consumer credit or asset-backed fintech lending, with direct ownership of portfolio analytics, credit performance monitoring, and risk strategy in fast-scaling, data-rich environments (e.g. PAYGo, BNPL, mobile lending).

Advanced Analytics & Modeling Deep, hands-on expertise in advanced credit analytics and modeling, using SQL and Python or R to analyse large transactional datasets, build predictive loss and cash-flow models, support IFRS 9 provisioning, and run experiments or causal analyses to improve credit outcomes.

Strategic Influence Demonstrated ability to influence fintech growth decisions through analytics, including setting or challenging credit policies, terms, pricing, and risk appetite based on data-driven insights presented to executive leadership.

Why This Role?

This role offers the opportunity to shape how a high-growth, mission-driven fintech uses data to make smarter, fairer credit decisions at scale. You'll work at the intersection of advanced analytics, product innovation, and real-world impact—seeing your insights directly influence strategy, risk appetite, and customer outcomes across multiple African markets.

With significant ownership, executive exposure, and the chance to solve complex credit problems using rich datasets, this role is ideal for someone who enjoys intellectual challenge, meaningful autonomy, and building systems that responsibly unlock financial inclusion for millions.

Your Technical Environment 💻

Core Stack: SQL (essential), Python or R (essential), Power BI, Excel

What You'll Build:

• Predictive loss models and cash-flow projections

• IFRS 9 provisioning models

• A/B testing frameworks and causal inference analyses

• Portfolio performance dashboards and executive reports

Data Scale: Large transactional datasets with 1.5 million daily payments

The Team

The Credit Risk & Analytics team is a highly analytical, cross-functional group responsible for managing credit risk, portfolio performance, and data-driven decision-making across M-KOPA's consumer finance products. The team combines credit risk analytics managers who support rapid, responsible growth across multiple African markets.

It is an established but evolving team, scaling its capabilities as the business grows in complexity, data maturity, and geographic reach. Working closely with Product, Finance, and Operations, the team plays a central role in shaping credit strategy, policy, and performance at scale.

Benefits

• Professional development programs and coaching partnerships

• Family-friendly policies and flexible working arrangements

• Well-being support and career growth opportunities

• Hybrid working in Ghana with diverse teams across UK, Europe, and Africa

Ready to drive responsible financial inclusion through world-class credit analytics?

Your expertise in digital consumer credit, advanced modeling, and strategic influence will directly shape how we grow responsibly across Africa.

Apply now!

Why M-KOPA?

At M-KOPA, we empower our people to own their careers through diverse development programs, coaching partnerships, and on-the-job training. We support individual journeys with family-friendly policies, prioritize well-being, and embrace flexibility.

Join us in shaping the future of M-KOPA as we grow together. Explore more at m-kopa.com.

Recognized four times by the Financial Times as one Africa's fastest growing companies (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 6 million customers, unlocking $1.5 billion in cumulative credit for the unbanked across Africa.

Important Notice

M-KOPA is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to assembling a diverse, broadly trained staff. Women, minorities, and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

M-KOPA explicitly prohibits the use of Forced or Child Labour and respects the rights of its employees to agree to terms and conditions of employment voluntarily, without coercion, and freely terminate their employment on appropriate notice. M-KOPA shall ensure that its Employees are of legal working age and shall comply with local laws for youth employment or student work, such as internships or apprenticeships. 

M-KOPA does not collect/charge any money as a pre-employment or post-employment requirement. This means that we never ask for ‘recruitment fees’, ‘processing fees’, ‘interview fees’, or any other kind of money in exchange for offer letters or interviews at any time during the hiring process.

Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisting and interviews will take place at any stage during the recruitment process. We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a suitable candidate is selected before the advertised closing date.

If your application is successful M-KOPA undertakes pre-employment background checks as part of its recruitment process, these include; criminal records, identification verification, academic qualifications, employment dates and employer references.