Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Plaid

Fraud, Research Scientist

$225.6-337.2k

Salary appliable for candidates based in New York City and San Francisco Bay Area, may vary in other locations

Python

Mid and Senior level

New York

San Francisco Bay Area

1-5 days a week in office

Data network powering the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life

Open for applications

Data network powering the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life

1001+ employees

FintechB2BBankingInternal toolsSaaSAPI

Open for applications

$225.6-337.2k

Salary appliable for candidates based in New York City and San Francisco Bay Area, may vary in other locations

Python

Mid and Senior level

New York

San Francisco Bay Area

1-5 days a week in office

1001+ employees

FintechB2BBankingInternal toolsSaaSAPI

Company mission

To unlock financial freedom for everyone.

Job

Company

Role

Who you are

PhD strongly preferred; we will consider equivalent research experience with a strong publication/innovation track record
3+ years of experience as a Machine Learning Engineer or Research Scientist
Strong scientific rigor and communication
Strong Python skills + ability to build high-quality research prototypes
Fraud / security / abuse domain experience is a plus
Experience with large-scale training, graph systems, and sequential modeling expertise is a plus
We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description

What the job involves

As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Research Scientist) you will lead applied research to develop next-generation fraud detection models across complex data modalities, including relational graphs, sequential events, images, and video
You will design and run rigorous experiments and build evaluation methodologies that reflect real-world fraud dynamics, prototype state-of-the-art architectures such as Graph Neural Networks and Transformer-based foundation models, and partner closely with Machine Learning Engineers to translate successful research into production systems
The role also involves communicating and publishing results internally and externally, helping raise the technical bar for fraud machine learning at Plaid
Build next-generation fraud detection capabilities by researching and prototyping state-of-the-art methods across graph ML, sequential modeling, and multimodal learning
Owning a research roadmap that ships: moving from papers/prototypes to measurable product impact
Publishing applied research and collaborating with a high-caliber team across Data, Product, and Engineering
Working with one of the largest financial datasets to generate insights that help hundreds of millions of consumers achieve greater financial freedom

Our take

Plaid builds infrastructure that allows consumers to interact with their bank account on the web through a number of third-party applications, like Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase, Acorns and LendingClub.

Plaid has integrated with over 12,000 financial institutions in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe. And about a quarter of people living in North America with bank accounts have linked with Plaid through at least one of the hundreds of apps that leverage Plaid’s application program interfaces (APIs).

The platform allows companies to create financial services applications without having to hire their own team of engineers to build out a tool that connects apps to its users’ bank accounts. This is very valuable in a world where there are increasing number of fintechs, so the demand for Plaid's services are only going to grow.

Steph

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Top investors

40% female employees

-15% employee growth in 12 months

Glassdoor (4.1)

Company

Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)

Apr 2025

$575m

LATE VC

Apr 2021

$425m

SERIES D

Total funding: $1.3bn

Company benefits

Vibrant offices in SF, NYC, and Raleigh-Durham—with catered meals, happy hours, and clubs to keep you connected
Competitive pay, comprehensive health benefits, and support for fertility, mental health, and parental leave
Lifestyle perks including home office stipends, daycare support, and commuting benefits like CitiBike and Lyft

Company HQ

SoMa, San Francisco, CA

Leadership

Zach Perret

(Co-Founder & CEO)

Previously, Zach was a Consultant at Bain and a Research Fellow and Trustee at Duke before co-founding Plaid ion 2012.

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