Senior Data Scientist, Risk

Senior Data Scientist, Risk

Location: Palo Alto, CA

Employment Type: Full time

Location Type: Hybrid

Department: Data

Compensation: $185K – $225K

Mudflap serves the $800B trucking industry, the backbone of the U.S. economy. Our market‑leading payment products help truckers save thousands of dollars on fuel (their #1 business expense), while providing our fuel stop partners with access to new, hard‑to‑reach customers. We’re a fast‑growing marketplace business looking for a new customer‑obsessed teammate to join us on this exciting journey.

About the Role

At Mudflap, we’re building a data‑driven decision engine that powers every facet of our business—from risk management and underwriting to product innovation and operational excellence. We’re looking for a versatile Senior Data Scientist, Risk to join our high‑impact team.

In this role, you will develop the models, insights, and strategies that help us identify, assess, and mitigate credit and fraud risk across our platform. You’ll lead the development of underwriting capabilities, design predictive models to reduce fraud losses, and uncover opportunities to improve portfolio performance. Working closely with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Finance teams, you’ll translate complex data into scalable risk solutions that drive growth while protecting the business.

Work location: Palo Alto, CA; hybrid work approach with in‑office collaboration and remote flexibility.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive strategic data science initiatives that directly impact business outcomes, working closely with executive leadership to identify high‑value opportunities in your domain.
• Lead end‑to‑end machine learning projects from problem formulation through production deployment, including model development, validation, A/B testing, and performance monitoring.
• Drive data‑driven decision making across cross‑functional partnerships—collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Ops, Risk teams to translate complex business requirements into analytical solutions and communicate insights to executive stakeholders.
• Mentor junior data scientists and analysts and establish best practices—provide technical leadership, code reviews, and strategic guidance while developing scalable data science methodologies and standards.
• Lead experimentation strategy and drive product innovation—own end‑to‑end A/B testing frameworks, mentor teams on experimental design, and translate test results into actionable product improvements that directly impact key business metrics.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in data science, analytics, or related fields.
• Proficiency in SQL and Python for data manipulation, modeling, and automation.
• Experience building production‑ready models and pipelines.
• Strong statistical knowledge and experience designing experiments (A/B testing, cohort analysis, causal inference).
• Excellent communication skills—ability to present complex insights clearly to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Experience in at least one of the domains: risk, growth/marketing, or product analytics preferred.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced startup environment where collaboration and flexibility are essential.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity in a high‑growth startup.
• Multiple health benefit options.
• Responsible Time Off.
• 401(k) matching.
• Opportunities and support for major career growth.
• Annual company offsite event (Mudfest!).

Additional Information

Compensation range for this role is $185,000 - 225,000.

Company: Mudflap is on a mission to transform the trucking and logistics industry by leveling the playing field for owner operators and small fleets. The core team hails from Disney, Uber, Procore, DoorDash, Google, Meta, Capital One, and more.

Core values include being Customer Obsessed, Making it Count, Finding a Way, Sweating the Details, and Being Curious.