Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Fraud)

Affirm; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 153,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage for you and dependents

ESPP equity rewards

Remote-first policy

Job summary

Affirm is transforming credit to be honest and friendly. The ML Fraud team builds real-time decision systems that protect customers and merchants while balancing fraud loss and conversion.

As a senior ML engineer, you will lead development of fraud models, scale feature pipelines, and productionize models with robust monitoring. You’ll collaborate across Engineering, Fraud Analytics, Product, and ML Platform in a remote Canada context.

Qualifications

• 6+ years experience researching, training, tuning and launching ML models at scale. PhD counts for up to 2 years.
• Track record of delivering high impact ML models in a low latency live setting.
• Strong Python skills and production-quality code.
• Experience building models for tabular classification (LightGBM / XGBoost / CatBoost).
• Experience with PyTorch.
• Experience with distributed processing (Spark).
• Experience with ML lifecycle tooling (Kubeflow, Airflow, MLflow).
• Proficient with AI-powered dev tools to accelerate iteration.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of new fraud prediction models for tabular, graph, and behavioral data.
• Build and scale feature pipelines and training datasets with internal and external signals.
• Prototype modeling ideas, run offline experiments, and push top approaches to production with risk controls.
• Productionize models into batch and real-time decision systems, improving latency and reliability.
• Instrument and monitor model and data health and define retraining and backtesting workflows.
• Identify foundational improvements to model-building processes.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Fraud Analytics, Product, and ML Platform to define requirements and communicate results clearly.

Skills

Python

production-quality code

low latency

ML model deployment

model monitoring

data pipeline

communication

ownership/growth mindset

Tools

LightGBM

XGBoost

CatBoost

PyTorch

Spark

Ray

Dask

Kubeflow

Airflow

MLflow

Claude Code / Cursor

Job description

Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest and friendly, giving consumers the flexibility to buy now and pay later without any hidden fees or compounding interest.

On the ML Fraud team, you’ll build and improve machine learning systems that make real-time transaction decisions, protecting consumers and merchants while balancing fraud loss, customer experience, and conversion. You’ll work closely with experienced ML engineers, platform partners, and cross-functional stakeholders to take models from idea to prototype to production, and to keep them healthy with strong measurement and monitoring as fraud patterns evolve.

What you’ll do

• You will lead development of new fraud prediction models using a mix of approaches for tabular, graph, and behavioral data
• You will build and scale feature pipelines and training datasets from proprietary and third-party signals, partnering with data and platform teams when needed.
• You will prototype new modeling ideas and features, run offline experiments, and drive the best-performing approaches into production with appropriate risk controls.
• You productionize models: integrate into batch and/or real-time decision systems, and improve reliability, latency, and operational robustness.
• You will instrument and monitor model and data health, and help define retraining/backtesting workflows as fraud patterns evolve.
• Identify and implement foundational improvements to how the team builds models.
• You will collaborate across Engineering, Fraud Analytics, Product, and ML Platform to define requirements, evaluate tradeoffs, and communicate results clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

What we look for

• You have 6+ years experience researching, training, tuning and launching ML models at scale. Relevant PhD can count for up to 2 years of experience.
• Track record of delivering high impact machine learning models in a low latency live setting
• Strong Python skills and experience writing production-quality code.
• Experience building and evaluating models for tabular classification problems (preferably gradient-boosted decision trees like LightGBM/XGBoost/CatBoost, or similar).
• Experience with a deep learning framework (PyTorch preferred).
• Experience working with distributed data processing or parallel compute frameworks (Spark preferred; Ray/Dask or similar).
• Experience with ML lifecycle tooling for training orchestration, experimentation, and model monitoring (e.g., Kubeflow, Airflow, MLflow, or equivalent internal platforms).
• Proficient in using AI-powered developer tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) to accelerate iteration, debugging, and code quality as part of day-to-day development workflows.
• You have mastered taking a simple problem or business scenario into a solution that interacts with multiple software components, and executing on it by writing clear, easily understood, well tested and extensible code.
• You are comfortable navigating a large code base, debugging others’ code, and providing feedback to other engineers through code reviews.
• Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
• You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.

Pay Grade - N
Equity Grade - 6

Employees new to affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.

Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents). In addition, the employees may be eligible for equity rewards offered by affirm holdings inc. (parent company).

CAN base pay range per year: $153,000 - $213,000

Location - Remote Canada This remote role is open only to candidates residing in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, or Saskatchewan. #LI-Remote

Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company! The majority of our roles are remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. affirmers in proximal roles have the flexibility to work remotely, but will occasionally be required to work out of their assigned affirm office. A limited number of roles remain office-based due to the nature of their job responsibilities.

We’re extremely proud to offer competitive benefits that are anchored to our core value of people come first. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:

• Health care coverage - affirm covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
• Flexible Spending Wallets - generous stipends for spending on technology, food, various lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
• Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules allowing you to take time off to rest and recharge
• ESPP - An employee stock purchase plan enabling you to buy shares of affirm at a discount

We believe It’s On Us to provide an inclusive interview experience for all, including people with disabilities. We are happy to provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in need of individualized support during the hiring process.

[For u.s. positions that could be performed in los angeles or san francisco] Pursuant to the san francisco fair chance ordinance and los angeles fair chance initiative for hiring ordinance, affirm will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.