Senior Research Scientist

Maya; Philippines; On-site; PHP 1,400,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Maya is seeking a Senior Research Scientist in the Philippines to drive applied research that translates cutting-edge AI into scalable fintech solutions. You will bridge theory and practice, prototype novel models, and collaborate with product and engineering teams to deploy real-world systems.

You will advance frontier AI through LLMs, speech, and optimization, while building academic collaborations and contributing to Maya's scientific footprint with papers and talks at major venues.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in a quantitative field such as CS, math, or statistics.
• 4+ years of AI/ML or applied research experience.
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Publications or conference contributions are a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead applied research to develop novel algorithms and ML-driven solutions.
• Translate business challenges into mathematical formulations and ML systems.
• Design, implement, and evaluate production-grade research outputs.
• Rapidly prototype and validate new ideas.

Skills

PyTorch/TensorFlow

LLMs/Speech Models

Mathematics/Optimization

Cross-functional collaboration

Research leadership

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Math/Statistics

PhD (preferred)

Tools

Gurobi

CPLEX

OR-Tools

SCIP

Job description

At Maya, we’re building the future of fintech in the Philippines—and frontier AI research is at the heart of that mission.

We’re looking for a Senior Research Scientist to join our Research & Development team, the engine that translates cutting‑edge AI research into real‑world impact across Maya’s products, customers, and operations.

This is not a traditional delivery or analytics role. It is a research function with a clear mandate: identify, adapt, and transform advances from academic and industry AI research into production‑grade systems at scale. You’ll operate at the intersection of scientific rigor and applied fintech impact, bridging theory and practice.

Research Focus Areas

Candidates may specialize in one or more of the following:

• Operations Research & Optimization (Decision Science)
• Neuro-symbolic AI

What You’ll Do

As a Senior Research Scientist at Maya, you will:

• Lead applied research to develop novel algorithms, models, and AI‑driven solutions
• Translate business and operational challenges into mathematical formulations, ML systems, or optimization frameworks
• Design, implement, and evaluate production‑grade research outputs
• Rapidly prototype and experimentally validate new ideas
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to deploy scalable, real‑world systems
• Stay at the frontier of state‑of‑the‑art AI/ML research and integrate relevant advances
• Build and sustain academic collaborations with universities and research institutions
• Contribute to Maya’s scientific footprint through publications and presentations at respected AI/ML venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, Interspeech, AAAI)
• Explore frontier paradigms such as Causal AI and neuro‑symbolic AI to build more robust, interpretable, and generalizable fintech solutions
• Mentor junior researchers and contribute to technical and research strategy

Track A: LLM & / or Audio Processing / Speech AI

Research & Responsibilities

• Develop and fine‑tune speech, audio, and language models
• Design end‑to‑end pipelines for training, evaluation, and deployment of audio and multimodal models
• Extract and model audio features (acoustic, prosodic, paralinguistic)
• Build systems for:
• Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
• Speaker recognition and verification
• Emotion recognition from speech
• Audio classification and event detection
• Speech‑based behavioral or psychometric modeling
• Transformer‑based architectures (e.g., wav2vec, Whisper‑style models)
• Self‑supervised learning for audio
• Representation learning and embedding methods
• Performance, latency, and scalability optimization

What We’re Looking For

• Strong experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow
• Hands‑on experience with LLMs, speech, or audio models in research and/or production
• Solid foundations in:
• Digital signal processing
• Deep learning for sequence data (Transformers, CNNs, RNNs)
• Emerging AI paradigms: familiarity with Causal AI and neuro‑symbolic approaches, especially for interpretability and decision‑making in high‑stakes financial systems
• Preferred: experience or collaboration in behavioral science, psychology, or psychometrics (particularly for credit, engagement, or voice‑based modeling)

Track B: Operations Research & Optimization

Research & Responsibilities

• Formulate and solve optimization problems including:
• Linear Programming (LP), Mixed‑Integer Programming (MIP)
• Multi‑objective optimization
• Scheduling, routing, allocation, and resource optimization
• Develop efficient algorithms and heuristics for complex decision problems
• Build simulation models and decision‑support systems
• Apply optimization techniques to real‑world operational, financial, and AI‑driven systems

What We’re Looking For

• Strong background in operations research, optimization, or applied mathematics
• Experience with tools such as Gurobi, CPLEX, OR‑Tools, SCIP, or similar
• Deep understanding of mathematical modeling, algorithms, and computational complexity

What Success Looks Like

• Continuous innovation through the adoption of frontier AI research
• Strong influence on data‑driven decision‑making across the organization
• A visible research presence via academic partnerships and publications
• Tangible impact across:
• Lending: reduced credit risk, improved approval rates, optimized pricing, enhanced fraud detection
• Marketing & Customer Protection: improved acquisition and retention, personalization, fraud prevention, increased customer lifetime value

What You Bring

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or similar)
• 4+ years of experience in AI, ML, data science, or applied research
• Proven track record of delivering impactful research‑driven solutions
• Strong analytical thinking and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to challenge conventional approaches while operating within regulatory and responsible AI constraints
• Research output (conference papers, workshops, pre‑prints) is a strong advantage
• Master’s degree preferred; PhD is a strong differentiator

Why Maya?

At Maya, research doesn’t live in isolation. Your work will move from paper to production, shaping how millions of users experience financial services—responsibly, at scale.

If you’re excited about doing serious AI research with real‑world impact, we’d love to hear from you.