Financial Model Risk Management Lead

At Affirm, we exist for the moments that matter—giving people a clear, predictable way to pay over time, with no hidden fees, no surprises, and no tradeoffs on what matters most. About Enterprise Risk & Internal Audit The Enterprise Risk & Internal Audit department protects Affirm’s operations and long-term success. We identify, assess, and monitor risk across the business. Our work includes internal audits, regulatory assurance, fraud prevention, and crisis planning. The team maintains strong controls, tracks key risk indicators, and ensures readiness for external reviews. We uphold accountability, transparency, and resilience to support responsible growth. About the Team We're looking for an intelligent, driven professional to join our Model Risk Management (MRM) team as a Lead validator for Finance and Analytics models. MRM serves as Affirm's second line of defense, establishing and overseeing an effective model risk management framework to identify, quantify, monitor, mitigate, and report on model risk throughout the company. What You'll Do: Perform independent challenges of financial and analytics quantitative models — including ALM, allowance/loss forecasting, loan transition models (LTM), corporate financial planning models, take-up and engagement models, and related decision-support analytics — through rigorous validation and ongoing monitoring Lead end-to-end validation engagements on high-complexity, high-criticality models Identify model weaknesses, limitations, and opportunities for improvement; articulate findings clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders Collaborate with model owners and stakeholders across Finance, Quantitative Research, and Growth Analytics to remediate validation findings and strengthen model governance Partner cross-functionally to implement and maintain the company's MRM framework Partner with Internal Audit, Internal Controls, Accounting, and Compliance to ensure timely resolution of audit, regulatory, and examiner requests What We Look For: 4–6 years of professional experience in related technical areas such as model development, model validation, quantitative finance, or data analytics — with meaningful exposure to financial and/or analytics model validation Deep and broad knowledge of corporate finance, treasury, ALM, and/or actuarial/statistical forecasting Experience in credit underwriting, credit risk management is a plus Proven ability to work with scripting languages (e.g., Python) and large-scale datasets (e.g., SQL); comfort reviewing models built in Excel, Python, Databricks, or similar environments Experience with statistical modeling, time-series forecasting, simulation, and/or machine learning techniques as applied to finance and analytics use cases BS, MS, or PhD in a quantitative field such as Quantitative Finance, Financial Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, or Data Science Detail-oriented and intellectually curious about data, models, and business context; skilled at critical thinking and structured problem-solving Extraordinary interpersonal and verbal/written communication skills — able to influence model owners, present to senior stakeholders, and navigate cross-functional remediation Pay Grade - M Equity Grade - 8 Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills. Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include equity rewards, monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents.) USA base pay range (CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT) per year: $185,000 - $245,000 USA base pay range (all other U.S. states) per year: $164,000 - $224,000 #LI-Remote Remote-first with flexibi