Chime Innovation, Technology & Agility

What does a typical day for you at Chime look like?

Data Science is crucial to a company’s success. Data Scientists manage relationships with stakeholders and translate business problems into analytical insights, process automation, experimentation and machine learning solutions.

Since I joined Chime over four months ago, I have been on a financial security cross-functional team to provide data science support to MyPayTM, one of our biggest new products. I’m currently working with another Data Scientist on developing a new ML model for MyPay.

ML models shine the most when they provide business value to the stakeholders. To launch a product like MyPay, many teams have to chime in, so I spend a lot of time understanding the updates on the legal, compliance and design sides — and especially on the product, risk and engineering fronts.

In addition, I spend most days conducting exploratory data analysis, engineering features, creating machine learning models in the model development phase, evaluating the model performance, updating the stakeholders in the later phase of the model development and, more often than not, troubleshooting different issues and solving problems.
 

Tell us about a project you’re working on right now.

When SpotMe* a fee-free overdraft product, was launched in 2019, most banks still charged overdraft fees. But over the years, many banks have dropped them. Chime’s member-centric trailblazer has made a positive impact on consumers.

MyPay is also a game changer. It empowers members by providing them with funds ahead of payday. It is my great privilege to contribute to a product that has such tremendous potential to help members with my data science expertise.

Different data scientists may have different answers to this, but I love framing ML problems and designing end-to-end ML solutions. Thinking about how MyPay relates to other products at Chime and how MyPay brings value to Chime is very interesting to me. I also really enjoy brainstorming different model approaches with other Data Scientists and cross-functional partners.

One potential challenge of working on a super high-impact product is staying informed when there are many moving pieces. Thanks to Chime’s culture of encouraging documentation and teams sharing updates in public, the challenge becomes a learning opportunity.

What’s the culture like on your team? How do Chime team members grow their knowledge and connect?

I am a part of the data science and machine learning team and based in San Francisco. In addition to the financial security data scientists I work with day-to-day, I also work with data scientists from other business functions and ML platform engineers. Those of us based locally also enjoy having lunch together in the SF office.

Our team is very supportive of individual growth and learning from each other. We have brown bag Thursdays and other technical learning sessions to stay updated with what other data scientists and engineers are up to.

Chime also supports the culture of learning and sharing. We have biweekly experimentation hours, demo hours, insight hours, research hours, etc., so all Chimers can keep up to date with other departments’ work.

My favorite learning experience so far is Hack Week. We had three days to turn an idea into a product, and it was a thrilling experience. That Friday, we had five hours of demos. It was so inspiring to see all the wonderful ideas and realize that I get to work with so many brilliant and humble colleagues. Fun fact: MyPay was once a Hack Week idea!

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

Since joining Chime, I’ve been consistently impressed by how the company fosters innovation. Just a month in, my manager and teammates encouraged me to participate in the annual hackathon. Chime’s hackathons bring together hundreds of “Chimers” and spark not only creative product ideas but also new connections across teams that continue to help me to this day.

Within my core team, we also host Innovation Days, where we tackle pressing challenges and find solutions that could scale or automate our work and reduce the team’s burdens. These small side projects don’t just help us; they free up more of our time to develop innovative products that improve our customers’ experiences as well. Beyond hackathons and Innovation Days, I’ve found that onsites, guild meetings, Donut chats and cross-functional workshops instill a strong sense of learning and collaboration. These moments spark deeper understanding, foster alignment and inspire fresh ways of problem-solving in us.

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work? 

Our focus on innovation enabled us to build data-driven dashboards that began as a side project. As part of the quality engineering team, we transformed these dashboards into impactful tools that provide essential, actionable insights and aggregate key metrics, offering a comprehensive view of product quality and health. Through these efforts, we’ve not only improved efficiency but also developed a stronger culture of ownership, collaboration and data-driven thinking.

Another example born out of a hackathon was our automated ticket triage process. What once required hours of manual effort across teams is now handled with greater speed and accuracy, significantly reducing overhead and improving response times.

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture? 

Having the support and bandwidth at both the team and organizational level to prioritize innovation has helped us move more quickly toward our goals. It has created a team culture and environment where people are always ready to roll up their sleeves and improve how we work, which in turn fosters a strong sense of collaboration. Events like hackathons, guild onsites and guild meetings provide great opportunities to bond and boost morale, especially important while working in a remote environment. These practices strengthen our team culture, making it easier to connect and support one another. 

Whether we’re pairing on technical design docs or jumping into an impromptu huddle to brainstorm solutions, it has taught us all to value flexibility and shared ownership, which helps us stay creative, productive and aligned. Innovation at Chime isn’t just an initiative — it’s a mindset, and I’ve felt empowered to be a part of it from day one.