Sr Staff Machine Learning Scientist, Agentic AI

The Company

PayPal has been revolutionizing commerce globally for more than 25 years. Creating innovative experiences that make moving money, selling, and shopping simple, personalized, and secure, PayPal empowers consumers and businesses in approximately 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. 

We operate a global, two-sided network at scale that connects hundreds of millions of merchants and consumers. We help merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments, whether they are online or in person. PayPal is more than a connection to third-party payment networks. We provide proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on our platform on behalf of our customers.

We offer our customers the flexibility to use their accounts to purchase and receive payments for goods and services, as well as the ability to transfer and withdraw funds. We enable consumers to exchange funds more safely with merchants using a variety of funding sources, which may include a bank account, a PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products, a credit card, a debit card, certain cryptocurrencies, or other stored value products such as gift cards, and eligible credit card rewards.  Our PayPal, Venmo, and Xoom products also make it safer and simpler for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. We offer merchants an end-to-end payments solution that provides authorization and settlement capabilities, as well as instant access to funds and payouts. We also help merchants connect with their customers, process exchanges and returns, and manage risk. We enable consumers to engage in cross-border shopping and merchants to extend their global reach while reducing the complexity and friction involved in enabling cross-border trade. 

Our beliefs are the foundation for how we conduct business every day.  We live each day guided by our core values of Inclusion, Innovation, Collaboration, and Wellness. Together, our values ensure that we work together as one global team with our customers at the center of everything we do – and they push us to ensure we take care of ourselves, each other, and our communities.

Job Summary:

PayPal is seeking a Senior Staff Machine Learning Scientist to drive the next evolution of Venmo’s Agentic Experiences — a new paradigm redefining how users interact with Venmo through intelligent, context-aware, and autonomous AI systems.

In this role, you will be a key contributor to the design and development of Venmo’s Agentic interface, helping shape both the product vision and the underlying AI architecture. You will work on everything from agentic system design and orchestration to LLM fine-tuning, context engineering, evaluation, and deployment. Your work will enable Venmo to deliver personalized, proactive, and conversational experiences powered by advanced large language models and cutting-edge agent frameworks.

This role is ideal for candidates who are deeply passionate about Agentic programming, LLM customization, and building intelligent, interactive financial experiences at scale.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities:

• Define and drive the strategic vision for machine learning initiatives within the team.
• Lead the development and optimization of machine learning models.
• Oversee the preprocessing and analysis of large datasets.
• Deploy and maintain ML solutions in production environments.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate ML models into products and services.
• Monitor and evaluate the performance of deployed models, making necessary adjustments.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers and data scientists.
• Ensure adherence to best practices and industry standards in ML development.

Expected Qualifications:

• 8+ years relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree OR Any equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Deep expertise with ML frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, or scikit-learn.
• Extensive experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and tools for data processing and model deployment.
• Proven track record of leading the design, implementation, and deployment of machine learning models.

Additional Responsibilities & Preferred Qualifications:

Your Day-to-Day 

• Design, develop, and evolve Venmo’s Agentic system, including its reasoning, memory, and action layers to deliver dynamic, context-aware user experiences. 

• Fine-tune large language models (LLMs) for Venmo-specific use cases, ensuring robust alignment,