Head of Data – Financial Services at Ascentech Services Limited

Ascentech Services Ltd acts as a gateway to provide a wide range of recruitment and selection services to companies. We are a dedicated team of professional consultants offering top-of-the-line executive recruitment and selection services. We cater for the needs of a range of professionals seeking employment and work together to create effective solutions using our networks and strong client base.Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Head of Data – Financial Services to lead data strategy, analytics, machine learning, credit risk modelling, fraud detection, and data governance for a growing financial services business.

The successful candidate will lead a multidisciplinary team of Data Engineers, Data Analysts, and Data Scientists, ensuring data products and models are effectively deployed and aligned with business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Lead data strategy, governance, architecture, and data quality initiatives.
Develop and deploy credit risk, behavioural scoring, and collections models.
Oversee fraud, anomaly detection, and Early Warning Systems (EWS).
Drive customer segmentation, propensity, churn, cross-sell, and growth analytics.
Ensure AI/ML models are deployed, monitored, and optimized in production.
Partner with Risk, Product, Commercial, Engineering, Finance, and Compliance teams.
Lead, mentor, and develop the data team while establishing strong technical and MLOps standards.

Requirements

Bachelor\'s degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, Economics, or related field.
10+ years\' experience in Data Science, Analytics, or Data Engineering.
4+ years\' experience leading multidisciplinary data teams, preferably in banking, lending, or fintech.
Proven experience in credit risk modelling, fraud analytics, and financial transaction data.
Strong knowledge of SQL, Python, Snowflake, Power BI, PySpark, Machine Learning, MLOps, and Cloud platforms.
Experience with data governance, model risk management, and financial services regulations.
Experience in SME, retail, or informal-sector lending is an advantage.