Skillful

Meet
Skillful

Why Skillful

Recruitment done properly is rare. We built Skillful because we knew there was a better way.

With years in the industry, enough to know what good looks like, and enough to have seen what it looks like when it goes wrong. That experience shapes everything we do, from the way we listen to candidates to how we advise clients on a brief.

We specialise in analytics and technology: Credit Risk, Data Science, Marketing Analytics and Regulatory Reporting.

Niche areas where the right fit really matters and where a recruiter who knows the space makes all the difference.

Moving jobs is stressful. Hiring is hard. Whether you're a candidate taking a big next step or a client building something, we're here to make it feel a lot less daunting and a lot more human.

What we cover

More on each specialism →
01Credit Risk & ModellingModellers · Validation · Portfolio strategy · Heads of risk 02Decision Science & AnalyticsDecision science · Pricing · Customer insight · MI 03Data Science & AIData scientists · ML engineers · Research leads 04Data & Technology EngineeringData engineers · Backend · Cloud & platform · Architects 05Regulatory Reporting & GovernanceReg reporting · Stress testing · Model risk · Compliance
Industries

The markets we live in

Credit Risk & Modelling

Modellers · Validation · Portfolio strategy · Heads of risk

IRB, IFRS 9, scorecards and portfolio strategy — the roles where a model owner and a model validator are not interchangeable.

We hire across the model lifecycle for banks, building societies and lenders of every size: PD/LGD/EAD development, monitoring and validation, affordability and collections strategy, plus the leadership above them. We can tell a rebuild from a recalibration on a CV, which is why our shortlists are short.

Decision Science & Analytics

Decision science · Pricing · Customer insight · MI

Commercial analytics that actually changes a decision — pricing, customer, campaign and portfolio.

From first analytics hire to a team of twenty. SAS, SQL, Python and increasingly dbt — but we brief on the business question first, because the tooling follows the problem and not the other way round.

Data Science & AI

Data scientists · ML engineers · Research leads

Applied science in regulated settings, where explainability matters as much as accuracy.

Fraud, propensity, forecasting, NLP and the model-risk governance that has to wrap around them. We are candid with clients about what the market pays and candid with candidates about what a role really involves day to day.

Data & Technology Engineering

Data engineers · Backend · Cloud & platform · Architects

The platforms and services everything above depends on, and the engineers who keep them honest.

Pipelines, warehouses and the backend services around them — Python, Java, Scala, Spark, Snowflake, AWS and Azure. Contract and permanent, individual hires and small squads.

Regulatory Reporting & Governance

Reg reporting · Stress testing · Model risk · Compliance

COREP, FINREP, stress testing and model risk — scarce skills with very little margin for a mis-hire.

A small, well-networked market where the right person is usually not looking. This is where a specialist search beats a job advert, and where most of our unadvertised mandates sit.

Who we work with

Retail & challenger banks
Specialist and SME lenders
Building societies
Fintech and embedded finance
Consultancies & advisory
Credit bureaux and data providers
Live roles

Roles we're working on now

A live board, not an archive. If nothing here fits, send your CV anyway — a good half of what we work on never reaches this page.

Contact

Say hello

Hiring, job-hunting, or just weighing up a move — tell us which and we'll reply the same working day.

Call

0208 138 2288

Office

160 Kemp House
London EC1V 1CN

Elsewhere

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