Machine Learning Engineer II (Underwriting ML)

About the Position

Machine Learning Engineer II (Underwriting ML)

Remote US

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 Underwriting ML team, you’ll build and improve machine learning systems that make real-time transaction decisions, assessing the repayment risk and expected value of every Affirm checkout. 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 user behavior and macroeconomic conditions evolve.

Responsibilities

• Develop and iterate on underwriting prediction models using a mix of approaches for tabular and sequential data.
• Build and scale feature pipelines and training datasets from proprietary and third-party signals, partnering with data and platform teams when needed.
• Prototype new modeling ideas and features, run offline experiments, and drive the best-performing approaches into production with appropriate risk controls.
• Help productionize models: integrate into batch and/or real-time decision systems, and improve reliability, latency, and operational robustness.
• Instrument and monitor model and data health, and help define retraining/backtesting workflows.
• Collaborate across Engineering, Risk Analytics, Product, and ML Platform to define requirements, evaluate tradeoffs, and communicate results clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Requirements

• 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 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.
• Experience 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.
• Comfortable navigating a large code base, debugging others' code, and providing feedback to other engineers through code reviews.
• Experience demonstrating that you take ownership of your growth, proactively seeking feedback from your team, your manager, and your stakeholders.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills that support effective collaboration with our global engineering team.
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

We Offer

• Competitive salary range: $146,000 - $225,000 per year (depending on location).
• Equity rewards.
• Monthly stipends for health, wellness, and tech spending.
• 100% subsidized medical coverage, dental, and vision for you and your dependents.
• Flexible Spending Wallets for various lifestyle needs and family forming expenses.
• Competitive vacation and holiday schedules.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP).

About the Company

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.

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