Vice President, Data Science

Join our team and build your career with momentum as we champion your growth, elevate your ideas and engage you in purpose-driven work that makes a real difference every day.

Who we are Founded in 1997, Merrick Bank is an FDIC-insured financial institution headquartered in South Jordan, Utah, with over $10 billion in assets. A wholly owned subsidiary of Card Works Financial Group, Merrick Bank serves roughly five million card members and more than 100,000 merchant customers nationwide.

What we doWe provide credit cards, recreational loans, deposit accounts, merchant services and bank sponsor ships to consumers and businesses. As a leader in non-prime lending and merchant acquiring, we combine innovative technology with data-driven insights to help underserved consumers build and strengthen credit while delivering integrated, scalable payment solutions for businesses.

Merrick Bank ranks among the top 20 FDIC-insured credit card issuers in the U.S. and among the top 15 merchant acquirers by transaction volume.

Position Summary and Role Impact:

The Vice President of Consumer Lending Analytics is a high-visibility executive leadership role that will drive growth and improve risk-adjusted returns for Merrick’s Recreational business. Merrick’s Recreational Lending business offers secured installment loans through our dealer partners for RVs, boats, trailers, and more. The VP will lead a cross-functional team of data scientists and business analysts, including people leaders and individual contributors, to drive improvements across credit strategy, verification strategy, pricing, valuations, collections, and recoveries.

The Vice President will align resources across cross-functional teams – including business line partners, finance, legal, compliance, second line credit risk, and technology – and external vendors to launch new initiatives that advance business priorities and needs of both our partners and end customers.

Ideally, the qualified candidate will work at the South Jordan, UT location, however a hybrid/remote work model or other locations can be considered based on hiring manager decision and priorities of the role.

Essential Functions:

People Leadership:
Lead, motivate, and develop a cross-functional team of people leaders and individual contributors, fostering a culture of high performance, learning and development, and high associate engagement.

Credit Strategy:
Optimize credit policies such as approve/decline criteria, policy limits, verification requirements, and risk model implementations.

Performance Monitoring and Valuations:
Develop, monitor, and interpret key performance indicators (KPIs) and financial metrics to effectively manage the P&L, providing actionable insights that support strategic decision-making.

Data Science and Modeling:
Oversee the roadmap and delivery of data science initiatives (such as credit risk underwriting models) supporting the Consumer Lending businesses

Pricing & Product Optimization:
Conduct comprehensive, data-driven analyses and market research to identify opportunities for product enhancements, pricing adjustments, and partner/customer experience improvements that improve profitability and market positioning.

Verification Strategy:
Evaluate internal policies and external solutions to improve customer verifications such as income and employment.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

Build relationships and partner closely with internal stakeholders — including business line partners, finance, legal, compliance, second line credit risk, and technology — and external vendors to coordinate efforts, share insights, and ensure successful implementation of strategic initiatives.

Perform other duties as assigned by senior management.

Maintain ethical standards, judgment,…