Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer (Fintech)

TL;DR

Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer (Fintech): Leading the design, implementation, and scaling of advanced ML systems for financial products with an accent on representation learning, sequence modeling, and distributed infrastructure. Focus on driving multi-year technical strategy, mentoring senior engineers, and solving complex, ambiguous problems to ensure system reliability and innovation at scale.

Location: Must be based in the United States

Salary: $236,000 – $325,000 per year (depending on location)

Company

Affirm is a financial technology company reinventing credit to provide consumers with flexible, transparent, and honest payment solutions.

What you will do

• Define and drive multi-year technical strategy for machine learning across the organization.
• Lead the design and scaling of advanced ML systems, ensuring reliability and extensibility.
• Partner with product, engineering, and risk leadership to shape long-term modeling capabilities.
• Provide broad technical leadership and mentor senior engineers to elevate design and code quality.
• Drive clarity on high-stakes technical decisions and resolve cross-team architectural tensions.
• Champion operational excellence and robust monitoring practices for critical ML systems.

Requirements

• Must be based in the United States
• 10+ years of experience researching, designing, and operating large-scale, real-time ML systems.
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks like PyTorch and XGBoost.
• Deep expertise in distributed ML infrastructure, feature stores, and large-scale data processing (Spark, Ray).
• Strong understanding of representation learning, Transformers, and sequence modeling.
• Proven track record of technical leadership and driving measurable business impact.

Culture & Benefits

• 100% subsidized medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents.
• Generous flexible spending wallets for technology, food, and lifestyle needs.
• Competitive vacation and holiday schedules.
• Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) with discount.
• Remote-first culture with occasional office collaboration.