Head of Machine Learning

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

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

What We're Looking For

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

Nice to Have

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

Why Apply?

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

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.