Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Risk AI

Company Description

It all started with an idea at Block in 2013. Initially built to take the pain out of peer-to-peer payments, Cash App has gone from a simple product with a single purpose to a dynamic ecosystem, developing unique financial products, including Afterpay/Clearpay, to provide a better way to send, spend, invest, borrow and save to our 47 million monthly active customers. We want to redefine the world’s relationship with money to make it more relatable, instantly available, and universally accessible.

Today, Cash App has thousands of employees working globally across office and remote locations, with a culture geared toward innovation, collaboration and impact. We’ve been a distributed team since day one, and many of our roles can be done remotely from the countries where Cash App operates. No matter the location, we tailor our experience to ensure our employees are creative, productive, and happy.

Check out our locations, benefits, and more at cash.app/careers.

Job Description

The Risk AI team’s mission is to develop cutting-edge deep learning-based signals and learned representations for Risk ML models. Our focus is on exploring, developing, and implementing state-of-the-art (SOTA) alternatives to traditional feature-based machine learning methods. By leveraging the latest advancements in AI, we aim to enhance real-time evaluation pipelines used by the Risk ML team to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and activities. Cash App holds people’s money, and maintaining customers’ trust is absolutely essential to our brand. Preventing scams and fraud is a major component of building that trust. The Risk AI team is at the forefront of this effort, utilizing SOTA approaches to drive innovation and protect our users from emerging threats.

What you’ll do:

• Design, build and maintain Machine Learning systems that enable us to flag fraudulent activities in real-time
• Work hand-in-hand with ML Modellers to identify and integrate new data sources, heuristics and models
• Solve challenging technical problems at scale, collaborating with colleagues located across the globe
• Own your solutions from design through to operation: we all share the pager!
• Lead the conception, design, and implementation of large-scale experiments to validate novel ideas rapidly and comprehensively
• Apply the latest theoretical advancements to enhance existing products, processes, and technologies, ensuring they remain at the forefront of the industry
• Engage in the creation of experiments, prototyping, and architectural design, contributing to a diverse range of computer science domains such as machine learning, data mining, natural language processing, and performance analysis
• Take the lead in designing systems, data structures, frameworks, and evaluation metrics for research solution development
• Conduct experiments aligned with research inquiries, employing simulations and prototypes to assess the outcomes

Qualifications

• 8+ years of Software Engineering and/or ML experience, with a track record of solving business problems with technology and proven experience successfully taking ownership of an end-to-end solution
• Work autonomously in a fast paced, ambiguous and unpredictable environment
• Be naturally curious & eager to learn
• Work creatively, taking initiative and leading when required
• Grow your solutions, maintaining and fixing them as necessary
• Communicate via clear and concise writing to facilitate asynchronous collaboration across multiple time zones
• Reason about complex, distributed systems at high scale
• Proficiency in machine learning techniques, experimental design and data engineering
• Strong programming skills in languages such as Python, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.

Additional Information

Block takes a market-based approach to pay, and pay may vary depending on your location. U.S. locations are categorized into one of four zones based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Zone A: USD $198,000 - USD $297,000
Zone B: USD $188,100 - USD $282,100
Zone C: USD $178,200 - USD $267,400
Zone D: USD $168,300 - USD $252,500

To find a location’s zone designation, please refer to this resource. If a location of interest is not listed, please speak with a recruiter for additional information. 

Full-time employee benefits include the following:

• Healthcare coverage (Medical, Vision and Dental insurance)
• Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account
• Retirement Plans including company match 
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Wellness programs, including access to mental health, 1:1 financial planners, and a monthly wellness allowance 
• Paid parental and caregiving leave
• Paid time off (including 12 paid holidays)
• Paid sick leave (1 hour per 26 hours worked (max 80 hours per calendar year to the extent legally permissible) for non-exempt employees and covered by our Flexible Time Off policy for exempt employees) 
• Learning and Development resources
• Paid Life insurance, AD&D, and disability benefits 

These benefits are further detailed in Block's policies. This role is also eligible to participate in Block's equity plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies, and may be eligible for a sign-on bonus. Sales roles may be eligible to participate in a commission plan subject to the terms of the applicable plans and policies. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.

We’re working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is a proud equal opportunity employer. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other legally protected class. 

We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we’re doing to build a workplace that is fair and square? Check out our I+D page.

Block will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances. Because the material duties of this role involve direct or indirect access to sensitive personal or financial data, a criminal background check is required following a contingent offer of employment.

While there is no specific deadline to apply for this role, on average, U.S. open roles are posted for 70 days before being filled by a successful candidate.

Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) is a global technology company with a focus on financial services. Made up of Square, Cash App, Spiral, TIDAL, and TBD, we build tools to help more people access the economy. Square helps sellers run and grow their businesses with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services. With Cash App, anyone can easily send, spend, or invest their money in stocks or Bitcoin. Spiral (formerly Square Crypto) builds and funds free, open-source Bitcoin projects. Artists use TIDAL to help them succeed as entrepreneurs and connect more deeply with fans. TBD is building an open developer platform to make it easier to access Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies without having to go through an institution.