Affirm

Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Fraud)

Affirm$153K — $213K *
US-AnywhereRemote in Canada
Finance & Insurance
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years of experience with ML models; PhD may substitute for 2 years.
  • Proven success in deploying ML models in real-time environments.
  • Strong Python programming and production-quality code experience.
  • Expertise in tabular classification models, preferably with LightGBM/XGBoost.
  • Familiarity with deep learning frameworks, ideally PyTorch.
  • Experience in distributed data processing using Spark or similar.
  • Knowledge of ML lifecycle tools for orchestration and monitoring.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the development of cutting-edge fraud prediction models using diverse data sources.
  • Build and scale robust feature pipelines and training datasets from both proprietary and third-party data.
  • Prototype new modeling ideas and conduct offline experiments to refine approaches.
  • Integrate models into decision systems, enhancing reliability and speed.
  • Monitor model health and establish workflows for retraining as fraud patterns change.
  • Identify and implement foundational improvements in model development processes.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally to define requirements and communicate technical results effectively.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health care coverage with all premiums fully covered for employees and dependents.
  • Generous stipends for Technology, Food, and lifestyle needs through Flexible Spending Wallets.
  • Competitive vacation and holiday benefits to encourage work-life balance.
  • Employee stock purchase plan that allows participation in company equity at a discount.
Full Job Description
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

About Affirm

Affirm is a publicly traded financial technology company headquartered in San Francisco, United States. Founded in 2012, the company operates as a financial lender of installment loans for consumers to use at the point of sale to finance a purchase. Affirm was founded in 2012 by Max Levchin, Nathan Gettings, Jeffrey Kaditz, and Alex Rampell as part of the initial portfolio of startup studio HVF. Levchin, who co-founded PayPal, became CEO of Affirm in 2014. In October 2017, the company launched a consumer app that allowed loans for purchases at any retailer. The company announced a partnership with Walmart in February 2019. Under the partnership, Affirm is available to customers in-store and on the Walmart website. Affirm has partnered with e-commerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, and Zen-Cart. On November 18, 2020, Affirm filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for an initial public offering. On December 12, 2020, it was reported that Affirm had postponed its IPO. On January 13, 2021, Affirm became listed on NASDAQ with symbol AFRM, raising about $1.2 billion in its IPO. By the next day, the price of shares had doubled, making Levchin's stake worth about $2.5 billion. In May 2021, Affirm acquired Returnly, a financial technology service company, for $300 million.
Learn more about Affirm
Size
1,300 employees
Market Cap
$2.5 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$97.6 million
Founded
2012
Revenue
$617.1 million
NASDAQ

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