VP, Model Risk Management (L13)

Role Title: VP, Model Risk Management (L13)

Company Overview:

Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a premier consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry’s most complete digitally enabled product suites. Our experience, expertise and scale encompass a broad spectrum of industries including digital, health and wellness, retail, telecommunications, home, auto, outdoors, pet and more.

• We have recently been ranked #2 among India’s Best Companies to Work for by Great Place to Work. We were among the Top 50 India’s Best Workplaces in Building a Culture of Innovation by All by GPTW and Top 25 among Best Workplaces in BFSI by GPTW. We have also been recognized by AmbitionBox Employee Choice Awards among the Top 20 Mid-Sized Companies, ranked #3 among Top Rated Companies for Women, and Top-Rated Financial Services Companies.
• We provide best-in-class employee benefits and programs that cater to work-life integration and overall well-being.
• We provide career advancement and upskilling opportunities, for all to take up leadership roles.

Organizational Overview:

Synchrony's Risk Team provides independent oversight of Synchrony’s risk-taking activities to ensure safety and soundness, meet regulatory and legal requirements, and manage risks to the risk-appetite of the Board. Risk is responsible for independently assessing, quantifying, and overseeing risks & providing effective challenge. Risk serves as Synchrony’s Second Line of Defense.  

Overall, Risk Team oversees and manages the Risk Program to support the business in anticipating and addressing risks, issues and challenges. Results are consistent with the respective strategic uses and complying with related overall risk, risk testing policies, standards, procedures as well as regulations. Our Risk organization consists of 4 pillars: Compliance, Credit & Financial Risk, Enterprise Risk and Operational Risk. Each of the pillars play a vital role in managing Risk and supports the business in anticipating and addressing risks, issues, and challenges. Enterprise Risk provides oversight on Synchrony-wide initiatives and projects and manages issues, risk assessment & reporting, risk monitoring activities, policy standards and procedure framework for governance documents.

Role Summary/Purpose

The VP, Model Risk Management (MRM) will initially serve as a senior individual contributor responsible for executing high-quality, end-to-end model validations across a broad range of model types and business use cases—including machine learning, traditional statistical, and non-statistical/heuristic models. Reviews will span credit risk (acquisition and account management), fraud (transactional and TNF), marketing, collections, finance, forecasting/loss, and other model applications. This role requires demonstrated excellence in independent validation execution, strong technical judgment, and the ability to deliver thorough, business-relevant, policy-compliant reviews with minimal supervision. The VP will use effective project and stakeholder management (clear scope, workplan, milestones, coordination, and timely escalation) to keep validations moving and complete them within agreed timeframes. In addition to meeting governance requirements, validations should generate actionable insights that strengthen model performance, monitoring, and controls. Upon demonstrating sustained high performance as a validator, the role is expected to evolve into a team lead position for the MRM India team (approximately 20 team members via dotted-line reporting). In the team lead capacity, the VP will shift from primarily owning validations to elevating team speed and quality by serving as an active second reviewer, providing hands-on guidance on complex work, and coaching validators on best practices—reducing rework and iteration with U.S. review managers and strengthening consistency of deliverables.

Key Responsibilities

1) Model Validation Delivery (Individual Contributor – Initial Primary Focus)

• Lead and execute end-to-end validations across diverse model categories (machine learning, traditional statistical, and non-statistical/heuristic models), including strong technical challenge, independent testing, clear documentation, and adherence to MRM policies/standards and applicable regulations.
• Deliver high-quality validation work products with minimal oversight, including well-supported conclusions, clearly articulated issues, and practical remediation recommendations.
• Identify model risk and assess control effectiveness across credit (acquisition and account management), fraud (transactional and TNF), marketing, collections, finance, forecasting/loss, and other model use cases.

2)Team Leadership & Capability Building (Upon Demonstrated Success)

• Serve as team lead for the MRM India team (~20 members dotted-line), providing day-to-day guidance and hands-on support to improve quality and turnaround time.
• Act as a hands-on secondary reviewer for selected validations to improve first-pass quality, reduce rework, and accelerate closure timelines.
• Coach and upskill validators through real-time feedback and structured development; develop and/or oversee onboarding and training to ramp new hires within expected timeframes and increase team independence over time.

3) Execution Discipline, Quality, and Timely Delivery

• Manage validations with strong execution discipline (scope, workplan, milestones, dependencies, coordination, and timely escalation) to keep work progressing and close reviews within agreed timeframes.
• Apply consistent quality control and best practices in testing, documentation, issue writing, and model risk articulation; ensure deliverables are audit-ready and examination-ready.
• Drive measurable improvements in delivery efficiency and consistency (e.g., reduced rework/iteration and improved cycle time) across model types.

4) Stakeholder Partnership (U.S. Validation Managers as Key Peers)

• Build strong, trusted relationships with U.S.-based validation managers as key stakeholders and peers; collaborate continuously to understand priorities, expectations, and challenges, and to identify where support is most needed.
• Align early on validation direction, scope, and review approach to minimize rework and improve timeliness.
• Incorporate U.S. validation manager feedback to strengthen second-review support and improve deliverables.

5) Governance, Reporting, and Exam/Audit Support

• Maintain strong governance and documentation practices, including validation artifacts, model risk summaries, and issue/remediation tracking; support governance routines and reporting.
• Provide periodic status updates and visibility into progress, risks, and bottlenecks through dashboards and leadership touchpoints.
• Support internal audits and regulatory examinations by preparing documentation, responding to inquiries, and driving timely remediation of observations.
• Contribute to model governance initiatives and other MRM priorities/special projects as assigned.

Required Skills/Knowledge

• Master's degree (or foreign equivalent) in Statistics, Mathematics, Economics or related quantitative field and 13+ years' experience in model development/model validation experience in financial services, banking, or retail; in lieu of a Master’s degree, 15+ years’ experience in model development/model validation experience in the retail section of a U.S. financial service/banking.
• Model validation leadership (hands-on): Extensive experience leading end-to-end model validations with strong technical challenge, independent testing, clear documentation, and defensible conclusions.
• Machine learning expertise: Deep, hands-on experience validating or developing ML models
• Non-Machine Learning experience (e.g. loss forecast, stress testing, finance, treasury): Working experience validating or developing qualitative models across a broad range of use cases
• MRM governance & regulatory fluency: Strong experience applying U.S. Model Risk Management expectations, including SR 11-7 and OCC 2011-12, to validation planning, execution, documentation, and issue management.
• Domain breadth: Strong working knowledge validating models across credit risk, fraud, marketing, collections, finance, and forecasting use cases.
• Programming & data: Proven, hands-on capability using Python, SQL, and Spark to execute development or validation analyses and work with large datasets in modern data environments (e.g., data lake platforms).
• Leadership & coaching foundation: Demonstrated experience mentoring/coaching analysts/validators, improving quality through review feedback, and influencing delivery outcomes; readiness to step into a dotted-line team lead role.
• Execution discipline: Ability to manage scope, milestones, dependencies, and escalations to maintain momentum and complete validations within agreed timeframes.
• Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills, including producing clear validation narratives and presenting technical findings to senior stakeholders.

Desired Skills/Knowledge

• Cloud / platform experience: Experience validating or supporting models in cloud-based environments, including AWS/SageMaker.
• Team leadership (people management): Experience leading teams in a matrix/dotted-line environment, including prioritization and quality uplift.
• Project/program management: Experience managing multiple concurrent reviews using structured project management approaches
• Experience validating or developing GEN AI Models

Eligibility Criteria:

Master's degree (or foreign equivalent) in Statistics, Mathematics, Economics or related quantitative field and 13+ years' experience in model development/model validation experience in financial services, banking, or retail; in lieu of a Master’s degree, 15+ years’ experience in model development/model validation experience in the retail section of a U.S. financial service/banking.

Work Timings: 2:30 PM to 11:30 PM IST

For Internal Applicants:

• Understand the criteria or mandatory skills required for the role, before applying
• Inform your manager and HRM before applying for any role on Workday
• Ensure that your professional profile is updated (fields such as education, prior experience, other skills) and it is mandatory to upload your updated resume (Word or PDF format)
• Must not be any corrective action plan (First Formal/Final Formal, LPP)
• L11+ Employees who have completed 18 months in the organization and 12 months in current role and level are only eligible.
• L11+ Employees can apply

Grade/Level: 13

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