Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Research Scientist) Fraud

We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. Were dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo SoFi several of the Fortune 500 and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaids network covers 12000 financial institutions across the US Canada UK and Europe. Founded in 2013 the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York Seattle Washington D.C. Raleigh London and Amsterdam.

We are the Fraud Data team within Plaids Fraud organization. We leverage relationships and activity across Plaids network to develop machine learning models that help customers detect and prevent fraud while minimizing friction for legitimate users. Our team owns the full model lifecycle from data processing and experimentation to feature pipelines model serving and this research role youll partner closely with Machine Learning Engineers and Data Scientists to uncover new signals explore and evaluate innovative modeling approaches and translate promising research into production-ready solutions that strengthen fraud detection across Plaids network.

As a Senior Research Scientist you will lead applied research to develop next-generation fraud detection models across relational graphs sequential events images and video data. Youll design rigorous experiments and evaluation methodologies that reflect real-world fraud dynamics while exploring state-of-the-art approaches such as Graph Neural Networks and Transformer-based foundation close partnership with Machine Learning Engineers youll translate promising research into production-ready solutions and communicate your findings internally and externally to advance the technical bar for fraud machine learning at Plaid.

Responsibilities:

• Research and prototype state-of-the-art approaches across graph machine learning sequential modeling and multimodal learning to build next-generation fraud detection capabilities.

• Own and execute a research roadmap that translates innovative ideas and prototypes into production solutions with measurable product and customer impact.

• Publish and share applied research while collaborating with a highly skilled cross-functional team across Data Product and Engineering.

• Leverage Plaids network-level financial data to uncover insights and develop solutions that help hundreds of millions of consumers achieve greater financial freedom.

Qualifications:

• PhD in Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Computer Science Statistics Applied Mathematics or a closely related field strongly preferred. Candidates without a PhD may be considered with equivalent research experience such as significant publications patents or widely adopted research contributions in relevant fields.

• 24 years of relevant industry or research lab experience ideally post-PhD with demonstrated research leadership and a track record of translating innovative research into measurable product or business impact.

• Demonstrated scientific rigor with strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to clearly communicate complex research findings.

• Strong proficiency in Python and experience building high-quality research prototypes that can inform or transition into production systems.

Nice-to-Have:

• Experience in fraud detection security risk or abuse prevention.

• Experience with large-scale training graph systems and sequential modeling.
  

Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesnt fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!

Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race color national origin ethnicity religion or religious belief sex (including pregnancy childbirth or related medical conditions) sexual orientation gender gender identity gender expression transgender status sexual stereotypes age military or veteran status disability or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with applicable federal state and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability please let us know at

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.

Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan including medical dental vision and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position candidates work experience and skillset and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.

Required Experience:

Senior IC