Machine Learning Engineer (Research Scientist) - DFAI

Responsibilities

• Building a foundation model on one of the world’s richest financial datasets that no one else has.
• Doing research that ships: moving from experimentation and prototypes to production systems serving real customers.
• Working across the full ML stack, from pretraining objectives and architectures to serving infrastructure and monitoring.
• Collaborating with a high-caliber team and seeing your work amplify the capabilities of multiple product teams.
• Helping hundreds of millions of consumers achieve greater financial freedom through data-driven products.

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in ML/AI/CS/Stats/Applied Math (or closely related). PhD preferred but not required — candidates with equivalent industry research and production experience will be considered.
• 1-3 years of industry experience building and deploying ML models, with evidence of both research depth and production delivery
• Strong applied ML research skills with production delivery experience
• Depth in Transformers/LLMs, representation learning, or large-scale model training
• Distributed training experience and strong Python + software engineering fundamentals
• Fintech / financial data domain experience - Nice to have
• Demonstrated ability to ship models to production (not just prototype) - Nice to have
• External publications or open-source contributions - Nice to have

Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!

Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@plaid.com.

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Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.