Head of Machine Learning

Job Description

Head of Machine Learning | Application Fraud | USA

Location: Miami

Salary: Competitive Executive-Level Package

Employment: Full-time, Permanent

The Opportunity

Searchability is recruiting for an established, high-growth technology business specialising in AI-powered identity verification, fraud prevention and financial risk intelligence .

We're looking for an exceptional Head of Machine Learning to lead the development and evolution of sophisticated ML systems focused on detecting and preventing application fraud.

This is a senior leadership opportunity for someone who combines deep technical expertise in machine learning, fraud detection and predictive modelling with the ability to build, mentor and lead high-performing engineering and data science teams.

You'll play a critical role in shaping machine learning strategy, developing production-grade fraud detection models and delivering solutions that help financial institutions identify fraudulent applications and make more accurate risk decisions.

This is a hands-on technical leadership position requiring both strategic thinking and the ability to influence complex ML systems at scale.

What You'll Be Doing

\n
• Lead the machine learning strategy for application fraud detection and prevention.
\n
• Build, mentor and scale a high-performing team of Machine Learning Engineers and Data Scientists.
\n
• Oversee the design, development and deployment of production-grade fraud detection models .
\n
• Develop advanced predictive models using supervised learning, anomaly detection and behavioural analytics.
\n
• Drive improvements in model precision, recall, fraud capture rates and false-positive reduction.
\n
• Lead feature engineering, model experimentation, evaluation and performance optimisation.
\n
• Work with large-scale identity, transaction and behavioural datasets to identify fraud patterns.
\n
• Establish robust MLOps practices covering model deployment, monitoring, retraining and governance.
\n
• Collaborate closely with engineering, product, data and executive leadership teams.
\n
• Define the technical roadmap and long-term machine learning architecture.
\n
• Balance fraud prevention effectiveness with customer experience and commercial outcomes.
\n

What We're Looking For

\n
• Extensive commercial experience in Machine Learning, Applied Data Science or AI Engineering , including senior technical leadership responsibilities.
\n
• Proven experience leading and developing high-performing ML or Data Science teams.
\n
• Strong background in fraud detection, risk modelling, identity verification, financial services or related predictive analytics .
\n
• Excellent hands-on experience with Python, SQL and modern machine learning frameworks .
\n
• Deep understanding of supervised learning, classification models, anomaly detection and statistical modelling.
\n
• Experience with technologies such as XGBoost, LightGBM, PyTorch, TensorFlow or scikit-learn .
\n
• Proven experience deploying and maintaining machine learning models in production.
\n
• Strong understanding of feature engineering, model evaluation, experimentation and monitoring.
\n
• Experience working with large-scale, complex datasets and real-time decisioning systems.
\n
• Ability to translate complex technical challenges into measurable commercial outcomes.
\n
• Strong stakeholder management skills and experience influencing senior leadership.
\n
• Comfortable combining strategic ownership with hands-on technical involvement.
\n

Nice to Have

\n
• Previous experience within FinTech, fraud prevention, identity intelligence, payments or financial risk technology .
\n
• Experience detecting synthetic identity fraud, first-party fraud or fraudulent credit applications.
\n
• Knowledge of graph-based machine learning, entity resolution and network analysis.
\n
• Experience with real-time fraud scoring and low-latency inference systems.
\n
• Familiarity with AWS, GCP, Databricks, Spark, MLflow or similar technologies .
\n
• Experience developing models using highly imbalanced datasets.
\n
• Understanding of model explainability, fairness and regulatory considerations.
\n
• Experience scaling machine learning teams within a high-growth technology business.
\n

Why Apply?

\n
• Competitive executive-level compensation package.
\n
• Opportunity to lead machine learning within an established fraud prevention technology business.
\n
• Genuine ownership of ML strategy, technical direction and team development.
\n
• Work on complex, high-impact problems involving fraud detection and identity intelligence.
\n
• Access to large-scale datasets and sophisticated production machine learning systems.
\n
• Collaborate with experienced technical and commercial leadership teams.
\n
• Make a measurable impact on fraud prevention, financial security and customer protection.
\n
• Excellent long-term leadership and career progression opportunities.
\n

Interested?

If you're an experienced Machine Learning Leader with a strong background in fraud detection, predictive modelling and production ML systems , we'd love to hear from you.

Apply directly through LinkedIn or contact Searchability for a confidential conversation.