Sr. Model Validator - BSA/AML/Fraud/Fair Lending (Remote)

Overview

This Senior Risk Analyst model validator position is within First Citizens Bank's Model Risk Management (MRM) team, with a primary focus on conducting validations of the models that are impacted by fair lending laws and regulations.

Fair and responsible banking is always of potential concern when credit is extended via mortgages, loans, and credit card services. First Citizens Bank embraces fair lending and responsible banking by providing services and products to the widest possible community. Fair lending and non-discriminatory business practices are baseline expectations and the decisioning and pricing models used by the Bank must proactively prevent introducing bias into the Bank's business practices.

Responsibilities

The Senior Risk Analyst will collaborate with the MRM regulatory compliance model validation manager to conduct independent model validations. The primary objective is (1) to verify that the Fair Lending models align with the specified business objectives and the model's design objectives, (2) verify that the Fair Lending models are performing as expected, (3) and identify potential limitations, which includes assessing potential disparate impact.

The SRA be responsible for validating models and providing effective challenges to model owner's use of those models. The SRA must understand how disparate impact can be introduced at any point in the development, implementation, and maintenance of the models used to qualify customers for loans and services. The SRA must appreciate that a product's pricing and service terms are integral to fair lending and responsible banking.

• The SRA is responsible for undertaking a thorough evaluation of models used to extend credit and underwrite loans and must be able to provide credible challenges during model validation.
• Must be able to aggregate and synthesize data sets to perform statistical reviews for disparate impact across portfolios, products, and models.
• The SRA should have the experience and judgment to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Those who are successful in this role are good writers of technical reports. The SRA must write detailed model validation reports that accurately represent the model validations undertaken.
• May be asked to help guide junior team members on related model validations.
• The SRA will be responsible for keeping abreast of changes and updates to laws and regulations, including, CFPB 'Reg B', HMDA, ECOA, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), Fair Housing Act (FHA), and other laws and regulations as applicable.
  
  
  

Qualifications

Bachelors degree and 4 years of experience in Risk management, or financial analysis, or statistical modeling OR High School Diploma or GED and 8 years of experience in Risk management, or financial analysis, or statistical modeling

Preferred Qualifications

Advanced degree (Masters or Ph.D.) in a quantitative field (e.g., Economics; Operations Research; Applied Data/Computer Science; Applied Statistics; or a related quantitative discipline).

Minimum 5+ years of experience developing or validating compliance-oriented models. Development can include selecting, implementing, and actively monitoring vendor compliance fair lending models.

To be effective as a fair lending model validator, experience developing and/or using models that have been subject to compliance and legal review with respect to fair and responsible lending is essential.

• Deep experience building, optimizing, and validating logistic regression models.
• Experienced with credit scoring and decision science methods.
• Applied experience with fair lending testing and monitoring methodologies including matched pair, redlining analysis, and disparate impact analysis.
• Strong analytical skills, with ability to identify bias in the selection of the variables used in a model and the awareness to provide insights that mitigate disparate impact are critical.
• Advanced programing skills using software such as SAS, R, Python, SQL, Tableau, Excel VBA.
• Advanced SQL programming skills are needed to interrogate complex datasets.
• Requires knowledge of mortgage lending operations and consumer products; experience across multiple lending products such as cards, personal loans and mortgage lending is a plus.
• Ability to analyze and interpret laws, regulations and policies, including but not limited to the CFPB 'Reg B', Fair Housing Act, Community Reinvestment Act, HMDA, and ECOA.
• Experience using mortgage fair lending software such as nContracts or RiskExec is a plus.
  
  
  

The base pay for this position is relative to your experience but the range is generally $98,000 to $160,000 per year. This position is eligible for variable compensation, which may be in the form of incentive, bonus, or commission pay. First Citizens offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits program which you can review here: https://jobs.firstcitizens.com/benefits.