About Accion 

Accion is a global nonprofit on a mission to create a fair and inclusive economy for the nearly two billion people who are failed by the global financial system. We develop and scale responsible digital financial solutions for small business owners, smallholder farmers, and women, so they can make informed decisions and improve their lives. Through targeted investment strategies, advisory solutions, and expert thought leadership, we work with local partners to develop and scale cheaper, more accessible, and customer-friendly financial solutions. Since 1961, Accion has helped build more than 230 financial service providers serving low-income clients in 75 countries, reaching more than 350 million people. More at https://www.accion.org.

About Accion Advisory

The Accion Advisory team combines decades of on-the-ground experience with insights into new technologies to help our partners become more sustainable and scalable. We work with a variety of organizations focused on serving the financial needs of low-income people and businesses in emerging markets. With a presence in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, our team provides strategic and operational support to strengthen our partners and maximize their impact on underserved customers.

Our team is comprised of Regional Program Managers (RPMs) and their teams who are responsible for driving new business, bringing local context and hands on experience to meet customer needs; and Practice Area Leads who are technical area experts responsible for building the Advisory team’s expertise in core areas, driving execution excellence, and capturing synergies across technical practice areas and regions. The Practice Area Leads seek to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the execution of our engagements and to develop reusable tools and collateral for specific areas of expertise that Accion Advisory brings to all of our clients.

Position Summary 

We are looking for a senior manager who has a passion for developing and scaling responsible financial solutions for underserved people globally. If you have experience in developing and disseminating data driven models such as credit scoring models, customer segmentation models, and analytics capabilities using cutting edge ML modelling techniques then you might be a perfect fit for this role.

Your experience should ideally include executing projects on the ground, working with financial institutions/financial product providers to develop, deliver and manage advance machine learning and other statistical models that help them score/segment low income and underserved customers to deliver financial products and services to them.

As a Senior Manager, you will work on projects that aim to design, develop and implement data driven models using innovative approaches and new age techniques. You will help our clients, who are mainly financial service providers that serve underserved, low income and new to credit customers, to design and implement customer-centric financial products and services that address their needs and preferences. Your role would be to support various programs that Advisory is implementing and collaborating with multiple stakeholders such as financial institutions, platforms, program sponsors/donors and internal stakeholders to design and deliver financial solutions.

You will support program managers and other team members in developing Accion's strategy to execute and implement delivery of financial products under various programs. To succeed in this role, you should have a strong understanding and working experience to design customer-centric financial products and services by designing and developing models required to implement and manage financial products either directly with Financial Service Providers (FSPs) or consulting organizations that support and work with FSPs or new age fintech companies. You should also have strong analytical skills and business acumen, as well as excellent communication and interpersonal skills. You should be willing to travel within and outside the Asian region as required by the project.

Fluency in English is a must.

Position Responsibilities

Advisory Project Support to FSPs, platforms, program sponsors/donors and any other internal stakeholders:

• Lead the development and control of statistical transactional analytic models, integrating applicable Machine learning relevant AI techniques.
  • Coordinating with the Data Analysts for all the data requirements for ML algorithm deployment, statistical analysis, and tool development.
  • Managing, developing, and implementing statistical models to support credit, collection, account maintenance, recovery processes, customer profiling and segmentation for product related marketing and uptake etc.
  • Validating, through statistical tools, the consistency of the information required for constructing the statistical and expert models required.
  • Guiding to continuously validate the prediction capabilities of the statistical models developed and implemented.
  • Coordinate the preparation and documentation of the specific ML developments and follow up on related results.
• Developing and presenting training material to facilitate the implementation of the risk-based segmentation tools and other models developed.
• Contributing to the development of monitoring and maintenance tools for the risk-based segmentation tools implemented
• Building capacity and assisting FSPs in implementing Accion’s Portfolio Risk Management tools, which are designed to help in:
  • Monitoring and evaluating performance indicators of the loan portfolio and identifying trends for business growth, product acceptance, product cycle stage, and risk levels
  • Ensuring that overall business plan objectives are met and advising management on performance through timely reporting
  • Producing portfolio quality analysis reports (Net flow/trend analysis, vintage analysis, early payment defaults, and was/is analysis)
  • Evaluating the credit process flow to identify opportunities for improvement and recommendations for corrective strategies and tools
• Participate in conducting ongoing reviews and analyses of credit portfolios to determine delinquency patterns and recommend appropriate actions
• Collaborating in the development of policy and process guidelines for new products or commercial initiatives

Other Support

• Supporting business development efforts, including the creation and presentation of project proposals to clients and/or donors
• Effectively representing and communicating the value of the Advisory’s modelling and analytics service offering and how it can be integrated into solutions for partners.
• Contributing to the overall strategy and operations of the Advisory team by providing insights on trends, areas for growth, and market positioning in risk, modelling and data driven solutions and tools.
• Building Accion’s capacity by documenting and sharing project results and disseminating valuable information and tools through various knowledge exchange mediums such as brown bags, team meetings/debriefs, workshops, blogging, webinars, etc.

Position Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive experience in lending or retail operations in reputed FSP, consulting organization, or fintechs
• Education:
  • Minimum of MSc/MA in Economics, Finance, Mathematics, Statistics, or Business.
  • MBA or equivalent with a background in or inclination toward infotech, financial services, or social sector is preferred.
• Knowledge of Web programming languages like Python and Java.
• Knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL or PostgreSQL
• Knowledge in DevOps tools like Git, Jenkins, Docker is ideal
• Advanced statistical and financial skills, Credit Risk Modeling/Analysis, Data Mining, Financial knowledge; background in financial analysis with statistics or programming is preferred.
• Hands-on experience working in the design, build and implementation of financial solutions/services. Strong experience in score-building and statistical analysis
• Innovative mindset and fresh perspective to the design and development of new and existing business models to support clients in achieving breakthrough results. Experience in new business models and digital lending preferred.
• Excellent relationship-building skills, orientation to customer service, and an ability to sell ideas and motivate others.
• Ability to lead projects and coordinate with multiple teams from conception to delivery. Strong leadership skills and ability to influence leadership/decision-makers within the organization
• Ability to create and share project management related documentation including comprehensive and appealing presentations to partners.
• Ability to structure and scope complex problems and apply various analytical tools to develop solutions.
• Curious mindset & demonstrated initiative to learn the developments in fintech and financial inclusion domain, an entrepreneurial spirit.
• Excellent people skills and experience with multi-cultural environments are preferred.
• Proven multi-tasking skills with a positive, can-do attitude and an approach of “every job is important.”
• Team player who enjoys working in a semi/unstructured environment.
• Interest in our mission and working globally.
• Willingness to embody our values of excellence, respect and passion for social change.
  • Excellence: Accion staff should always put forth their best effort in all activities, strive for high quality of collective and individual performance; and demonstrate honesty and integrity at all times while in the workplace and while working on behalf of the organization.
  • Respect: Accion staff should value one another’s roles and responsibilities as much as their own, be encouraging, and value the diverse and unique perspectives of colleagues. They should honor obligations and commitments to each other and to external partners.
  • Passion for Social Change: Accion staff should be committed to making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate, value the greater good of the organization over personal gain, and promote a productive workplace by acknowledging the accomplishments of others. 

Travel Requirements

• Travel up to 30% domestically and occasional international trips.

Accion is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace culture. Accion seeks qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, military and veteran status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, change of sex or transgender status, or any other basis protected by law. Accion is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.