Manager, Machine Learning Engineering (Fraud)

Job Summary

The Fraud Machine Learning team at Affirm builds models that protect against fraud during the loan application process. This role involves leading a team of ML engineers to develop and improve fraud detection models, ensuring they maintain a seamless user experience while reducing fraud losses and improving approval rates. The successful candidate will also drive the evolution of modeling approaches, including the adoption of advanced techniques like representation learning and transformer-based methods.

About the Role

This is a management position where you will set the technical and modeling strategy for fraud detection, aligning team efforts with key business outcomes. You will lead the team through the entire machine learning lifecycle, from experimentation to production deployment and monitoring. You will partner with Product, Fraud Analytics, Risk, and Platform teams to ensure models are effectively integrated into decisioning systems.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the technical and modeling strategy for fraud detection
• Lead a team of machine learning engineers in designing, building, and iterating on high-impact fraud models
• Drive the evolution of modeling approaches, including the adoption of representation learning, transformer-based methods, and other advanced techniques
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Fraud Analytics, Risk, and Engineering to define solutions, evaluate trade-offs, and ensure models are effectively integrated into decisioning systems
• Develop talent by coaching engineers, providing feedback, and fostering a high-performing team culture

Requirements

• Bachelor’s in a technical field with 8+ years of industry experience, including 3+ years managing engineers
• Experience with modern ML approaches, including representation learning, deep learning, or transformer-based models, as well as traditional methods such as gradient-boosted trees
• Proven ability to lead teams delivering end-to-end ML solutions in production environments, including experimentation, evaluation, and model iteration in production
• Strong engineering fundamentals and experience working with scalable systems and data pipelines
• Track record of effective cross-functional collaboration with product, analytics, and engineering partners
• Ability to operate in ambiguous, fast-evolving environments and drive clarity, prioritization, and execution

Qualifications

• Equivalent practical experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field

Benefits

Base pay ranges from $204,000 to $290,000 per year, depending on location. Affirm offers a comprehensive benefits package including health care coverage, flexible spending wallets, time off, ESPP, and more. The company is remote-first and provides reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities.