Director of Risk Decision Science

About Cleo

At Cleo, we're not just building another fintech app. We're embarking on a mission to fundamentally change humanity's relationship with money. Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of background or income, has access to a hyper-intelligent financial advisor in their pocket. That's the future we're creating.

Cleo is a rare success story: a profitable, fast-growing unicorn with over $300 million in ARR and growing over 2x year-over-year. This isn't just a job; it's a chance to join a team of brilliant, driven individuals who are passionate about making a real difference. We have an exceptionally high bar for talent, seeking individuals who are not only at the top of their field but also embody our culture of collaboration and positive impact.

If you’re driven by complex challenges that push your expertise, the chance to shape something truly transformative, and the potential to share in Cleo’s success as we scale, while growing alongside a company that’s scaling fast, this might be your perfect fit. Follow us on Linked In to keep up to date with new product features and insights from the team.

We are looking for a Director of Risk Decision Science to be the strategic and technical architect of our global risk engine. This is a leadership role for a "builder" who understands that risk is a lever for growth, not just a defensive function. You will be the skip lead for teams responsible for how Cleo makes high-stakes decisions; that are designing the systems, the governance, and the logic that allow us to scale credit products across multiple geographies.

You will bridge the gap between commercial risk appetite and technical execution, ensuring our decisioning is automated, defensible, and highly profitable.

• Strategy & Architecture:
  Own the overall modeling and risk analytics strategy. You will decide how we set up teams to scale to multiple geographies and products while maintaining centralized governance.
• Organizational Leadership:
  Manage and scale the Risk Modeling (infrastructure/ML dev) and Risk Analytics (strategy/performance) functions. You will be responsible for the "hiring sequencing" required to move from early-stage to world-class sophistication.
• Decisioning Governance:
  Set the high-level standards for how we build, deploy, and monitor models. You will advocate for centralized infrastructure (like a shared feature store) to ensure consistency across the business.
• Risk Performance & P&L:
  Take leadership-level responsibility for credit risk performance metrics. You’ll set the direction for optimizing profitability, detecting when to roll back exposure, and implementing "kill-switches" for automated systems.
• Cross-Functional Influence:
  Use structured decision frameworks (DACI, trade-off matrices) to align Product, Engineering, and Finance. You are the expert who translates technical risk constraints into clear business options for the executive team.
• Zero-to-One Innovation:
  Design "data-light" strategies for new product launches where historical data is scarce, using proxy data (like Plaid/Open Banking) and phased rollouts to manage uncertainty.

• The "Technical Leader" Profile:
  You have previously led Data Science or Risk Modelling functions within a high-growth lending environment. You understand the "how" of ML (including feature engineering, drift monitoring, and back-testing) without being the person writing the code today.
• Credit Strategy Expertise:
  Deep experience in consumer credit products (Credit Builders, Instalments, EWA), ideally 0-1 across multiple geographies.
• Systems Thinker:
  You don’t believe in one-off fixes. You design modular structures that allow a decision made in one geography to inform or protect a product in another.
• Regulatory Maturity:
  You have a deep understanding of the US credit market.
• Strategic Judgment:
  You can make defensible recommendations under pressure. You don't aim to "please everyone"; you aim to find the most profitable, risk-adjusted path forward.

• A competitive compensation package (base + equity) with bi-annual reviews, aligned…