Quantitative Social Scientist Senior Data Scientist at Hangar

Outcome is seeking a Quantitative Social Scientist/Senior Data Scientist to develop and maintain our proprietary ISA underwriting model. This role will be responsible for implementing all computational workflows related to ISA contract design and financial evaluation. As a key member of the underwriting team, this role will be best suited to an analytical thinker with a genuine motivation to support social mobility through affordable higher education access.

About Outcome
Outcome is an innovative fin-tech company built on a novel financing model for higher education that ties repayment directly to student outcomes, improving alignment between students and educators and de-risking the pursuit of higher learning. We underwrite, originate, and fund Income Share Agreements (ISAs), Deferred Tuition Agreements (DTAs), and other forms of outcome-based financing. 

In an ISA or DTA, borrowers are required to repay their obligation once they are earning a liveable, minimum income -- and the obligation ends after a fixed period of time regardless of the amount a student has paid back. By making payments a function of post-graduation income, these contracts redistribute the risk of educational investment away from students while linking investors’ returns and schools’ revenue directly to student success. 

We use outcome-based financing to scale innovative and responsible models of higher education and support underserved student demographics. We drive capital to higher education partners who are dedicated to building a proven pathway to professional success for their students.

Outcome was incubated by Hangar, a firm that funds and builds technology companies tackling public sector market challenges.

Responsibilities
This role offers an incredible opportunity for impact, building solutions to fundamental problems within the higher education system. As our Quantitative Social Scientist, you will be responsible for the critical analysis of opportunities and outcomes in the higher education landscape.

• Manage Outcome’s proprietary ISA simulation and underwriting model: extend the code base to accommodate novel modeling tasks while maintaining an integrated and replicable central library.
• Assist the investment team with analysis of ISA programs on an ongoing basis. Tasks include estimation of students’ academic and professional outcomes for current and prospective educational partners, financial analysis and projections, and visualization of key features of ISA performance.
• Conduct computational due diligence on prospective educational partners, such as payments, graduation rates, and placement rates.
• Work with the operations team to translate computational modeling into ISA contracts, communicating key contract terms drawn from simulations. This includes calculating APR caps and payment scenarios for contracts. 
• Build and maintain a database of student borrowers and ISA payment activity.
• Maintain and innovate a data pipeline of private and public data sources to refine labor force predictions for student borrowers.
• Create computationally-informed thought leadership for Outcome’s blog and external communications.

About you
• Analytical, detail-oriented, organized, and self-motivated, you enjoy building solutions to complex problems and evaluate your own work with a careful and critical eye.
• Intrinsically motivated towards genuine impact. We’re looking for candidates with passion to make the higher education landscape more equitable and efficient and the technical skills to lead our product development.
• Can demonstrate Python proficiency in a range of data analysis, visualization, and statistical modeling capacities. You are proficient in object-oriented programming.
• You are communicative and able to synthesize the most important information for key (non-technical) stakeholders to ensure comprehension, both verbally and through data visualization.
• You hold a minimum of a bachelor's degree in economics, data science, sociology, or finance. A graduate degree in similar fields is a plus.

Additional Skills & Experience
• Proficiency in git/GitHub, SQL, big data tools (such as Apache Spark, AWS). 
• Familiarity with Plotly/Dash visualization frameworks or similar tools. 
• Experience with dynamic income modeling, survival analysis, scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, and risk assessment is a plus.
• Experience in financial services, including the development of risk management tools, actuarial models, or other forms of financial modeling is a plus. 
• Experience working in a start-up environment, particularly within the education or fintech space is a plus. 

Outcome is a distributed and remote-friendly team, with headquarters in New York City. We approach capital creation with novel perspectives, and actively seek experiences and backgrounds that are diverse, nuanced, and varied. 
 
We recognize historical approaches to investing have disproportionately hurt the most marginalized of society – including black and indigenous people of color, the economically disadvantaged, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals. As such, we strongly encourage applications from under-represented candidates in the worlds of finance and technology.

Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume to ali@outcome.group