Data Science Manager

About Wayflyer

Wayflyer was created to solve a major problem for growing small businesses: access to fast, flexible capital. Conventional lenders are often too slow and restrictive, so Wayflyer built a technology-led financing platform that evaluates businesses quickly, issues tailored offers based on growth potential, and can deliver funding in as little as 24 hours. The company has already deployed more than $6bn to thousands of businesses across the globe and is supported by top-tier banking partners including J.P. Morgan. Team members work with ambitious colleagues across offices in Dublin, London, New York, Charlotte, Berlin, and Sydney.

The opportunity

At Wayflyer, data science is not a side function or an isolated research group. It sits at the center of the decisions that determine who the company funds, how pricing is set, and how quickly the business can scale. The team already includes strong Data Scientists and ML Engineers, and the next hire will be expected to elevate the group, strengthen delivery, and ensure the work moves into production and delivers real business impact.

Role overview

In this position, you will manage a team of 4+ Data Science and ML Engineers while staying deeply involved in the technical work. Wayflyer views machine learning as part of software engineering, so this is a hands-on leadership role that includes coding, reviewing pull requests, and shipping production-ready models that support go-to-market and funding operations.

What you will do

• Lead, coach, and grow a high-performing DS/ML team while setting a strong standard for technical quality and clean code.
• Own the full machine learning workflow, from data labeling and model training through deployment, monitoring, and infrastructure upkeep.
• Work with Product and Engineering leaders to shape and deliver a data science roadmap that supports growth and risk decisions.
• Introduce and maintain strong engineering practices, including reusable data pipelines, automated testing, and clear documentation.
• Present technical findings in a clear, practical way to senior stakeholders, including VPs and executive leadership.
• Encourage the team to use AI and LLM tools to improve output quality and speed, without treating them as a substitute for sound work.

What success looks like

The ideal person has worked as an individual contributor and still understands the realities of building models that need to perform reliably in production. You should be comfortable leading from the front, balancing technical depth with commercial judgement, and knowing when to challenge a request versus when to move it forward. Strong managers in this role will help their teams become better, not just busier.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of experience in Data Science or Machine Learning, including 2+ years in a formal management or lead position.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining production ML systems independently.
• Advanced Python and SQL skills, with software engineering capability expected at the level of a strong engineer.
• Practical exposure to ML operations, including deployment, monitoring, and orchestration platforms such as Airflow or Dagster.
• Ability to turn business problems in risk or growth into well-designed technical data solutions.

How you can stand out

• Experience across Python, SQL, modern data stack tools, and orchestration platforms.
• Background in fintech or credit risk.
• Experience applying NLP methods such as text classification and named entity recognition.

Growth path

This role offers a direct influence on how Wayflyer scales. As the company expands into more products, markets, and decision-making areas, the scope of the role can grow as well. The successful candidate may take on adjacent areas such as growth or platform, lead cross-functional initiatives, or establish standards that influence how data science is practiced across the organisation.

Location and working policy

This position is based in Dublin or London and follows a hybrid working model.

Benefits

• 25 days of annual leave, plus public holidays.
• Private healthcare, life insurance, and pension coverage.
• Equity ownership as part of the package.
• Generous parental leave for both primary and secondary caregivers.
• Up to 60 days per year to work from abroad.

Data privacy notice

By applying, you agree that Wayflyer Limited may process your personal data to assess your fit for the role. This processing is carried out as part of the steps taken before a potential employment agreement is formed. For more information, candidates may contact the privacy team at [email protected] or review the company’s privacy notice.