Executive Search Success Story: Securing Machine Learning & Data Leadership for a Private-Equity-Backed Miami Fintech

How JRG Partners executed a confidential executive search strategy that equipped a private-equity-backed Miami financial technology company with the VP of Machine Learning and data leadership required to modernize fraud detection, accelerate credit decisioning, and deliver on the sponsor’s value-creation plan.

The Challenge

A Miami fintech recently acquired by a middle-market private equity firm was growing transaction volume rapidly but relied on legacy rules-based systems for fraud detection and credit decisioning. The sponsor’s value-creation plan depended on machine learning to reduce losses and improve unit economics. Executive leadership identified several critical hurdles threatening their growth objectives:

• Fraud losses rising faster than transaction volume
• Credit decisions taking hours, creating customer drop-off and competitive disadvantage
• A VP of Machine Learning role open for five months with no viable finalists
• Direct competition with New York and San Francisco firms for the same senior ML talent
• No internal capability to evaluate the technical depth of senior AI candidates
• Board expectations for measurable model performance improvements within the first year

Recognizing that the vacancy was delaying the entire value-creation plan, the CEO and sponsor engaged JRG Partners to lead a confidential search for a VP of Machine Learning, supported by a Director of Data Engineering, Head of Fraud & Risk Analytics, and Senior ML Platform Lead. The company required an executive search partner with proven private equity experience and direct access to production-scale machine learning leaders.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Private Equity Search Experience

JRG Partners has extensive experience serving private equity sponsors and portfolio companies, with a clear understanding of value-creation timelines, board reporting expectations, and the urgency of portfolio leadership placements.

AI and Data Leadership Networks

Our dedicated AI executive search practice maintains active relationships with machine learning and data leaders across payments, lending, banking, and insurance platforms nationwide.

Miami Market Positioning

As a South Florida firm, JRG Partners knows how to present Miami’s expanding fintech ecosystem, lifestyle advantages, and tax environment as competitive advantages against traditional technology markets.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Technical Requirements Definition

Our consultants partnered directly with the CTO, sponsor operating partners, and board to build a detailed technical scorecard covering model development, real-time inference infrastructure, fraud domain expertise, and team leadership. This replaced an ambiguous job description with clear, objective evaluation criteria.

Phase 2 — Targeted Talent Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting machine learning leadership across top-tier payments companies, digital lenders, neobanks, and traditional financial institutions with advanced fraud programs. Over 275 profiles were systematically analyzed, prioritizing leaders who had built production ML systems at scale.

Phase 3 — Confidential Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to executives with documented fraud-loss reduction and decisioning-speed improvements. The opportunity was positioned around greenfield ownership of the ML function, meaningful equity participation, and Miami’s growth as a financial technology center. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Rigorous Technical Selection

Each finalist completed a structured technical assessment reviewed by an independent machine learning advisor engaged for the search, followed by sponsor and board interviews. This gave the client confidence in technical depth it could not independently verify.

Key Outcomes

• 275+ machine learning, data engineering, and risk analytics leaders mapped across the financial services landscape.
• Closed a critical five-month executive vacancy in 42 days through confidential, targeted search.
• Secured a VP of Machine Learning from a top-tier national payments company for a Miami-based role.
• Reduced fraud losses by 31% and credit decision times to under one minute in year one.
• De-risked the sponsor’s value-creation plan by installing independently verified technical leadership.
• Strengthened exit positioning through visible AI capability and measurable model performance.