Enterprise Risk Modeling Lead
Farm Credit East
Description/Job Summary
Join a team focused on the success of our customers, the success of our communities, and the success of each other. Farm Credit East is the leading provider of loans and financial accounting services to farmers, foresters, fishermen, and agricultural business owners across the northeast with over $7 billion in loan volume and over $25 million in financial accounting service revenue generated annually. When you pursue a career with Farm Credit East, you have the opportunity to positively impact the families and businesses that drive the Northeast economy.
The Association employs approximately 480 employees across 20 local branch offices, serving 17,000 customers. In addition to loans and leases, the organization also offers a full range of agriculturally specific financial services for businesses related to farming, horticulture, forestry and commercial fishing. Farm Credit East's agriculture is diverse, including dairy/livestock, fruit/vegetable, timber, greenhouse/nursery, aquatic and cash crops. Farm Credit East operates its business lines across several technology platforms including Salesforce, nCino, and CCH. For more information, visit FarmCreditEast.com.
As part of the Data Analytics team within the Association’s Risk Management department, the position will entail supporting Farm Credit East's risk modeling, forecasting, and data analytics needs. The successful candidate will utilize quantitative and qualitative modeling techniques, statistical analyses, and various analytics tools to provide actionable information to aid in decision making. As the modeling lead, the candidate will be responsible for recommending/supporting modeling approaches and helping ensure modeling tasks are assigned appropriately across the team based on skill set. Strong collaboration and communication skills are essential both to communicating complex concepts to management in a way that is easy to understand, and to facilitating development and knowledge transfer across the modeling and analytics team.
Responsibilities/Duties
Primary accountabilities entail supporting the Association's risk modeling, forecasting, and data analytics needs to ensure that internal and external customer needs are met, contributing to meeting the Association’s goals and objectives. Basic functional areas include:
Credit Risk Modeling: Key responsibilities of the position include executing all aspects of the model development and data analytics lifecycles at Farm Credit East; developing, documenting, and supporting the deployment of quantitative models and other analytic tools to provide Association management and Board with insight into business risks facing the Association and actionable information to aid in decision making. Projects may include but are not limited to: portfolio stress testing, expected credit loss modeling and forecasting, risk rating models, profitability models, and predictive decision models. This position may also work in model validation to review various new and existing tools after they have been developed and deployed.
Collaboration: Work collaboratively with key stakeholders both internally and externally, including but not limited to Management, Business Unit Leaders, Financial Partners Inc (FPI) and the Association’s Knowledge Exchange group. This also includes participation in applicable committees, workgroups, or project teams, both within the Association and with key Farm Credit System (FCS) partners.
Contribute to the ongoing development of the modeling and analytics team through technical skills development and knowledge sharing. Assist other team/branch members when asked and offer help when time permits.
Customer Service: Provide outstanding service and effectively address customer (both internal and external) inquiries and issues in order to maintain strong customer relationships. Build customer confidence and satisfaction by setting, communicating, and meeting achievable customer expectations. Develop strong business relationships by taking responsibility of the situation and actions. Think creatively and seek opinions and ideas from others to utilize all of our products and services to create value for our customers while acting in a forthright and ethical manner.
Governance and Internal Controls: Farm Credit East believes that a strong governance and internal controls framework is essential to having a data driven organization. The candidate will be expected to be knowledgeable on, and work within the context of the Association’s data governance, model risk management, and internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR) frameworks.
Required Education
Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics / Mathematics, Economics, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence or related field required. Advanced degrees (Master’s or PhD), while not required, will be looked upon favorably.
Required Qualifications
Modeling:
- Demonstrated knowledge and competency in developing and deploying quantitative models and machine learning models, with an emphasis on credit risk modeling. Expertise in at least one of the following:
- Expected credit loss modeling and knowledge of the Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) accounting standard
- Loan portfolio stress test modeling and familiarity with DFAST or CCAR supervisory stress testing regulations
- Credit decision models, scorecard models, or the equivalent
- Other areas of modeling that are not required, but will be looked upon favorably include: fraud and anomaly detection; anti money laundering; marketplace intelligence; customer intelligence (next best opportunity; next best action); etc.
- Demonstrated knowledge in applying advanced statistical modeling techniques and machine learning algorithms
- Knowledge of model documentation and ongoing monitoring best practices
- Experience productionalizing models for deployment and familiarity with SDLC best practices
Model Risk Management:
- Familiarity with Model Risk Management and model validation practices and regulatory guidance (SR 11-7).
Data Analysis / Engineering:
- Experience querying data from a SQL Server database
- Experience in writing model code and performing ETL in various programming languages (R, Python, and/or SAS)
- Demonstrated knowledge of data visualization techniques
- Strong Microsoft Excel skills (pivot tables, macros, VBA)
- Understanding of relational databases, schema, and data models
- Knowledge of / experience with the Microsoft Azure platform, Databricks, ML Flow, and related tools is preferred
Other:
- Experience with any of the Association’s core systems and analytics platforms will be looked upon favorably (Salesforce, nCino, Fiserv DNA, Microsoft Azure, Databricks, SAS, Power BI, SAP Business Objects)
- Must have an innovative mindset and be willing to challenge the norm in a constructive, professional way
- Excellent communication (written and oral) and interpersonal skills, as well as leadership skills, with a particular aptitude in communicating complex technical concepts in simpler language for the consumption of management/decision-makers, as well as for the benefit and development of modeling and analytics staff
Experience working with different lines of business to accomplish modeling and data solutions by translating business requirements into data needs/techniques
Farm Credit East is an Equal Opportunity Employer. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, protected veteran status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law. It is our goal to make employment decisions that further the principle of equal employment opportunity by utilizing objective standards based upon an individual's qualifications for a specific job opening.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), if you have a disability and would like a reasonable accommodation in order to apply for a position with Farm Credit East, please call 1-800-562-2235 or e-mail info@farmcreditcareers.com.
Enfield, CT 06082
Full Time