Senior Fraud ML Research Scientist

Plaid; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Plaid is seeking a Senior Research Scientist to lead applied fraud-detection research across graphs, sequences, and multimodal data. You will design rigorous experiments and collaborate with ML Engineers and Data Scientists to translate research into production-ready solutions.

You’ll own a research roadmap, publish findings, and translate innovations into scalable systems that strengthen Plaid’s fraud defenses while minimizing user friction.

Qualifications

• PhD strongly preferred; candidates without a PhD may be considered with substantial research contributions.
• 2–4+ years of industry or research lab experience with leadership and impact.
• Demonstrated scientific rigor and ability to communicate complex findings.
• Strong Python proficiency and ability to build research prototypes.

Responsibilities

• Research and prototype state-of-the-art graph ML and multimodal approaches for fraud detection.
• Own and execute a research roadmap translating ideas into production-ready solutions.
• Publish and share applied research with cross-functional teams.
• Leverage Plaid’s network-level data to drive insights for hundreds of millions of users.

Skills

Research leadership

Scientific communication

Translating research to product impact

Team collaboration

Education

PhD in Machine Learning / AI / CS / Statistics

Post-PhD research experience

Tools

Python

Job description

Plaid is seeking a Senior Research Scientist to lead applied fraud-detection research across graphs, sequences, and multimodal data. You will design rigorous experiments and collaborate with ML Engineers and Data Scientists to translate research into production-ready solutions.

You’ll own a research roadmap, publish findings, and translate innovations into scalable systems that strengthen Plaid’s fraud defenses while minimizing user friction.