Director of Risk Decision Science, Cleo AI
$270-300k
Offers equity
AI personal finance assistant
Job no longer available
AI personal finance assistant
201-500 employees
Job no longer available
$270-300k
Offers equity
201-500 employees
Company mission
To change the world’s relationship with money.
Role
Who you are
- 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
What the job involves
- 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
Our take
People are increasingly not satisfied with the products being offered by traditional banks, which have proven slow to react to the needs of younger consumers who expect more from their everyday experiences.
Cleo was one of the first companies to make great use of chatbots that sit within Facebook's messenger app. This chatbot-first approach and Gen Z user base have given it strong virality. It now has millions of registered users, 99% of which are based in the US, leading to a decision to take a year break from the UK market to focus on its US Gen Z customers. And after a successful year in the US its now eyeing up a return to the UK.
Its Series C funding will help the company to double down in the US, where it will make a significant increase in employee headcount, and enable Cleo to maintain and expand its service during an economic downturn.
Financial advice delivered via bots is a crowded space, so Cleo benefits from having a strong brand presence. It has gone for very bold, fun, Gen Z-focused messaging which helps it to stand out from competitors such as Emma, Plum, and Chip.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Jun 2022
$80m
SERIES C
Dec 2020
$44m
SERIES B
Total funding: $137.5m
Company benefits
- Meaningful equity with early exercise, plus top-ups on promotion
- Up to 26 weeks’ parental leave
- Paid 1-month sabbatical every 4 years
- Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance
- Pension/401K match up to 6%
- Learning & development budget
- Mental health support via Spill
- Flexible working for a healthy work–life balance
- Work remotely from one of our hiring locations, with a hybrid option in our London office (1+ day/week)
- Annual company off-sites
- Company-wide performance reviews every 6 months
- Clear progression plans with opportunities to lead, grow, and challenge the status quo
- We’ll cover your OpenAI subscription
Company values
- Make it Happen - Own the outcome. Lend a hand, take a hand. Fast execution.
- No bullsh*t - Intellectually honest. Go hard on problems, not people. Data-backed decision making.
- Learn at Speed - Jump in and figure it out. Dig deep, do it right. Learn what matters.
- Bring Good Vibes - Read the room, lift the room. Show up for others. Keep it real, keep it positive.
Company HQ
London, UK
Leadership
Barnaby Hussey-Yeo
(Founder & CEO)Previously a Data Scientist at Wonga, one of the companies that pioneered the smart use of data for loan decisions. Joined Entrepreneur First where Cleo was formed.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Cleo AI
- We’ve set up an internal committee of truly passionate people that are dedicated to ensuring Diversity and Inclusion is embedded in how we all operate as a team. We agree on meaningful actions, and get on with implementing them. We have three main focuses right now, which are:
- 1) Improving SocioEconomic diversity across the company
- 2) Increasing the number of women in Leadership roles
- 3) More community outreach
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