Machine Learning Engineer (Research Scientist) - DFAI

Role Overview As a Research Scientist, you will advance Plaid’s foundation models by developing novel model architectures, pretraining objectives, and fine‑tuning strategies that generalize across a broad range of financial and product applications. You will contribute to the design, development, and operation of production machine learning systems, working across the full stack from data and feature engineering to training pipelines, model serving, and monitoring. The role also involves creating comprehensive evaluation frameworks that assess model performance across diverse tasks and use cases, ensuring robust and reliable outcomes. In close partnership with product and engineering teams, you will adapt foundation models to solve specific business challenges, validate their impact through rigorous experimentation, and translate research advances into production capabilities. You will also share insights and results with internal and external audiences, helping drive innovation across Plaid. Team The Data Foundation & AI team sits within Plaid’s Data organization and is responsible for building the shared machine learning and AI infrastructure that powers innovation across Plaid’s product portfolio. The team transforms Plaid’s unique financial network data into scalable, general‑purpose representations that can be leveraged by teams throughout the company. 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 Compensation and Benefits 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. EEO Statement 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 View email address on click.appcast.io. Candidate Privacy Notice Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here. #J-18808-Ljbffr Plaid