Job Description

About Accion:

Accion is a global nonprofit on a mission to create a fair and inclusive economy for the nearly two billion people who are failed by the global financial system. We develop and scale responsible digital financial solutions for small business owners, smallholder farmers, and women, so they can make informed decisions and improve their lives. Through targeted investment strategies, advisory solutions, and expert thought leadership, we work with local partners to develop and scale cheaper, more accessible, and customer-friendly financial solutions. Since 1961, Accion has helped build 267 financial service providers serving low-income clients in 75 countries, reaching 440 million people. More at https://www.accion.org.

About Accion Advisory:

Accion Advisory is a global team helping companies deliver innovative, affordable financial solutions for underserved customers in emerging markets. We work with local ecosystem partners, leveraging philanthropic capital and new technologies, to test, improve, and scale solutions that strengthen economic well‑being.

Our 60+ advisors deliver 30+ active projects across Africa, Asia, and the Americas, collaborating with financial service providers, fintech companies, digital platforms, and other stakeholders to demonstrate the viability of reaching end customers often considered too risky or costly to serve. Through AI- and data-driven digital transformation and embedded financial products, we drive impact across four key pillars: livelihoods, agriculture, climate, and women's economic empowerment.

Position Summary

The Senior Specialist, Data Analytics & Risk Management is Accion Advisory's technical owner of credit analytics and portfolio risk work for partner financial service providers. The role exists to turn partner data into decisions, building and validating statistical and machine-learning credit models, diagnosing portfolio quality, and recommending the policy and process changes that follow. Working independently toward broadly defined objectives, the Senior Specialist is the team's go-to expert on credit risk modeling and portfolio risk management and helps advance Accion's offering in machine learning and responsible AI applications.

The position reports to the Manager, Data Analytics & Risk Management, and is based in Bogotá, Colombia. This is an open-ended, hybrid role with two days per week on site, and approximately 40% regional travel with occasional international travel.

Position Responsibilities

Client Delivery Partner FSP Engagements

• Own the design, development, and validation of statistical and machine-learning credit models, from data requirements through deployment.
• Coordinate data requirements with the Database Analyst and partner IT teams and validate the integrity of source data used to build statistical and expert models.
• Continuously validate the predictive performance of deployed models and recalibrate as portfolio behavior shifts.
• Conduct portfolio quality assessments, including vintage, net flow, trend, early payment default, and WAS/IS analyses, and translate insights into corrective actions for FSP management.
• Monitor loan portfolio performance indicators and loan officer productivity, reporting trends in growth, product acceptance, product cycle stage, and risk levels.
• Evaluate credit process flows and recommend policy, process, and tool changes for new products and commercial initiatives.
• Build partner capacity in Accion's Portfolio Risk Management toolkit: deliver training and develop the monitoring tools that sustain risk-based segmentation after handoff.
• Act as go-to technical advisor to partner management on underwriting, collections, account maintenance, and recovery.

Contribution to Accion Advisory

• Advance the risk management service offering, particularly machine learning and unbiased AI applications to advisory delivery.
• Scope the analytics components of client and donor proposals.
• Assess the analytics and risk capability of prospective technical assistance and investment partners alongside Advisory and Investments colleagues.
• Document and share project results and tools across Accion through debriefs, workshops, and webinars.

Position Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Economics, Industrial Engineering, Finance, Mathematics, Statistics, or Business.
• 5+ years of experience in credit risk, portfolio analytics, or individual/retail lending within a regulated financial institution.
• Demonstrated experience building and deploying credit scoring or credit risk models with financial institutions.
• Credit risk modeling, statistical analysis, and data mining skills.
• Programming in Python, R, or SQL for modeling and data extraction.
• Professional fluency in English and Spanish, written and spoken.
• Legal authorization to work in Colombia.
• Strong client-facing communication and presentation skills, with sound judgment in advisory settings.
• Interested in our mission and working globally.
• Willingness to embody our values of excellence, respect and passion for social change.
• Excellence: Accion staff should always put forth their best effort in all activities, strive for high quality of collective and individual performance; and demonstrate honesty and integrity at all times while in the workplace and while working on behalf of the organization.
• Respect: Accion staff should value one another’s roles and responsibilities as much as their own, be encouraging, and value the diverse and unique perspectives of colleagues. They should honor obligations and commitments to each other and to external partners.
• Passion for Social Change: Accion staff should be committed to making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate, value the greater good of the organization over personal gain, and promote a productive workplace by acknowledging the accomplishments of others.

Preferred

• Master's degree in a quantitative or business field.
• Portfolio risk management experience in lending, including vintage and delinquency trend analysis.
• Advanced Excel, plus Power BI or Tableau.
• Experience advising financial service providers in emerging markets.
• Experience applying machine learning to credit, collections, or recovery decisioning.
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks and responsible or unbiased AI practice.
• Experience designing and delivering technical training to client teams.

This role requires travel averaging approximately 40% of the time, primarily regional within Latin America, with occasional international travel to client sites.

Accion is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace culture. Accion seeks qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, military and veteran status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, change of sex or transgender status, or any other basis protected by law. Accion is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.