Machine Learning Engineer - Data Foundation and AI

Plaid is a company dedicated to empowering financial interactions through innovative tools and experiences. The Machine Learning Engineer on the Data Foundation & AI team will design, build, and scale advanced ML/AI systems to enhance Plaid's products and applications, driving impact at scale through improved operations and innovative solutions. Responsibilities Building and scaling advanced ML/AI systems that power core Plaid products and applications used by millions of consumers Driving impact at scale by improving distributed training, serving, and ML operations to make Plaid’s AI capabilities faster, more reliable, and more widely available Developing new AI applications that enable innovative product experiences across fintech Tackling 0 to 1 problems where you explore new approaches, as well as scaling 1 to 10 systems for reliability and efficiency Collaborating with some of the strongest MLEs at Plaid in a high-ownership, bottom-up driven team Experimenting with cutting-edge ML and AI techniques while balancing practical productionization and measurable business impact Skills 1-3 years of experience training, deploying, and scaling ML/AI models in production environments Strong experience with distributed systems and ML operations — from large-scale training to low-latency serving and monitoring Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch), with the ability to implement and optimize complex models Hands-on experience building or scaling ML/AI infrastructure, pipelines, or reusable platforms that support multiple teams Curiosity and drive to experiment with advanced AI techniques (e.g., embeddings, retrieval, generative modeling) while staying grounded in production impact Ability to thrive in a collaborative environment, working with both technical and non-technical partners to drive measurable outcomes Experience applying ML/AI in fintech or similarly regulated industries is a plus Benefits Medical Dental Vision 401(k) Company Overview Plaid develops financial technology infrastructure that enables applications to connect with users' bank accounts and financial data. It was founded in 2013, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, with a workforce of 501-1000 employees. Its website is Company H1B Sponsorship Plaid has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships, with 41 in 2025, 41 in 2024, 42 in 2023, 53 in 2022, 30 in 2021, 11 in 2020. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role.