Affirm is reinventing credit to make it more honest and friendly, giving consumers the flexibility to buy now and pay later without any hidden fees or compounding interest.
On the ML Fraud team, you’ll build and improve machine learning systems that make real-time transaction decisions, protecting consumers and merchants while balancing fraud loss, customer experience, and conversion. You’ll work closely with experienced ML engineers, platform partners, and cross-functional stakeholders to take models from idea to prototype to production, and to keep them healthy with strong measurement and monitoring as fraud patterns evolve.
What you’ll do
- You will develop and iterate on fraud prediction models using a mix of approaches for tabular and behavioral data
- You will build and scale feature pipelines and training datasets from proprietary and third-party signals, partnering with data and platform teams when needed.
- You will prototype new modeling ideas and features, run offline experiments, and drive the best-performing approaches into production with appropriate risk controls.
- You will help productionize models: integrate into batch and/or real-time decision systems, and improve reliability, latency, and operational robustness.
- You will instrument and monitor model and data health, and help define retraining/backtesting workflows as fraud patterns evolve.
- You will collaborate across Engineering, Fraud Analytics, Product, and ML Platform to define requirements, evaluate tradeoffs, and communicate results clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
What we look for
- You have a total of 2+ years of experience as a machine learning engineer or a PhD in a relevant field.
- Strong Python skills and experience writing production-quality code.
- Experience building and evaluating models for tabular classification problems (preferably gradient-boosted decision trees like LightGBM/XGBoost/CatBoost, or similar).
- Experience with a deep learning framework (PyTorch preferred).
- Experience working with distributed data processing or parallel compute frameworks (Spark preferred; Ray/Dask or similar).
- Experience with ML lifecycle tooling for training orchestration, experimentation, and model monitoring (e.g., Kubeflow, Airflow, MLflow, or equivalent internal platforms).
- Proficient in using AI-powered developer tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) to accelerate iteration, debugging, and code quality as part of day-to-day development workflows.
- You have mastered taking a simple problem or business scenario into a solution that interacts with multiple software components, and executing on it by writing clear, easily understood, well tested and extensible code.
- You are comfortable navigating a large code base, debugging others' code, and providing feedback to other engineers through code reviews.
- Your experience demonstrates that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
- You have strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
Pay Grade - L
Equity Grade - 5
Employees new to Affirm typically come in at the start of the pay range. Affirm focuses on providing a simple and transparent pay structure which is based on a variety of factors, including location, experience and job-related skills.
Base pay is part of a total compensation package that may include monthly stipends for health, wellness and tech spending, and benefits (including 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental and vision for you and your dependents). In addition, the employees may be eligible for equity rewards offered by Affirm Holdings, Inc. (parent company).
CAN base pay range per year: $125,000 - $175,000
#LI Remote
Affirm is proud to be a remote-first company! The majority of our roles are remote and you can work almost anywhere within the country of employment. Affirmers in proximal roles have the flexibility to work remotely, but will occasionally be required to work out of their assigned Affirm office. A limited number of roles remain office-based due to the nature of their job responsibilities.
We’re extremely proud to offer competitive benefits that are anchored to our core value of people come first. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:
- Health care coverage - Affirm covers all premiums for all levels of coverage for you and your dependents
- Flexible Spending Wallets - generous stipends for spending on Technology, Food, various Lifestyle needs, and family forming expenses
- Time off - competitive vacation and holiday schedules allowing you to take time off to rest and recharge
- ESPP - An employee stock purchase plan enabling you to buy shares of Affirm at a discount
We believe It’s On Us to provide an inclusive interview experience for all, including people with disabilities. We are happy to provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in need of individualized support during the hiring process.
[For U.S. positions that could be performed in Los Angeles or San Francisco] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, Affirm will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
By clicking "Submit Application," you acknowledge that you have read Affirm's Global Candidate Privacy Notice and hereby freely and unambiguously give informed consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of your personal information as described therein.
Skills Required
- 2+ years of experience as a machine learning engineer or PhD in a relevant field
- Strong Python skills and experience writing production-quality code
- Experience building and evaluating models for tabular classification problems
- Experience with a deep learning framework (PyTorch preferred)
- Experience working with distributed data processing or parallel compute frameworks
- Experience with ML lifecycle tooling for training orchestration
- Proficient in using AI-powered developer tools
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
What the Team is Saying
Affirm Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage includes $0 employee premiums for medical, dental, and vision across all tiers, alongside company‑paid life, AD&D, and disability coverage. Mental‑health access via Spring Health provides no‑cost sessions and guided care navigation for employees and eligible family members.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time away spans Flexible Time Off for exempt staff, ~20 accrued vacation days for non‑exempt, 10 Health Days, up to 15 Life Happens days, bereavement up to 10 days, and scheduled company‑wide Away Days. These layers create frequent, structured opportunities to disconnect beyond standard PTO.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave provides 18 weeks for birth and non‑birth parents with return‑to‑work transition support. Family‑building benefits include Maven support and a one‑time $20,000 S.A.F.E. wallet for surrogacy, adoption, fertility, and egg freezing.
Affirm Insights
What We Do
At Affirm, we help people say yes to the things that matter with flexible, transparent ways to pay over time. No hidden fees, no compound interest, and no fine print—just a smarter way to spend.
Why Work With Us
Who is an Affirmer? /noun/ Someone who believes finance shouldn’t be complicated. We come from a diverse set of backgrounds and we’re driven by the desire to improve lives through honest financial products. We define success by challenging one another to bring our best ideas to every single project—and we have fun while doing it.
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Affirm Offices
Remote Workspace
Employees work remotely.
Affirm is a remote-first company! Our employees can work anywhere in the U.S. but if an office is more your style, we have office locations in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Pittsburgh.
