Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Risk

📋 Job Overview

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff — payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR — so owners can focus on their craft and their customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we support more than 500,000 small businesses nationwide and are building a workplace that reflects the people we serve.

🏢 About Gusto

All full-time employees receive competitive base pay, benefits, and equity (RSUs) — because everyone who helps build Gusto should share in its success. Offer amounts are determined by role, level, and location. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy.

AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Gusto. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.

🎯 The Role

For this role, we are looking for a technical leader (an individual contributor) to drive machine learning and AI in the identity and risk domains. You will build a model-driven risk platform to provide a trusted environment for Gusto Ecosystem.

You’ll work with an established team and seasoned leaders across Engineering, Product, Design, and Operations, spanning the Identity, Risk, and Compliance domains. In this role, you’ll work cross functionally to build Platforms that span the entire breadth of the Identity and Risk Stacks, and use ML and AI to build a world- class, high secure platform that safeguards our users’ activities and money, and ensures unparalleled reliability.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Build and deploy machine learning models to identify, assess and mitigate risks
• Responsible for driving research in the problem space, working with stakeholders to understand model requirements, developing the model from scratch, deploying the model alongside your engineering counterparts, and monitoring and maintaining the model’s performance over time
• Partner with Engineering, Design, and Product counterparts in Identity and Risk to solve complex cross functional problems
• Develop scalable frameworks and libraries that enhance and contribute to the team’s core analysis and modeling capabilities, including through the integration of LLMs to improve data processing, analysis, and insights.
• Identify new opportunities to leverage data to improve Gusto’s products and help risk management team to understand business requirements and develop tailored solutions
• Present and communicate results to stakeholders across the company

📌 Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience conducting statistical analyses on large datasets and deep domain knowledge in machine learning and artificial intelligence, including familiarity with Large Language Models (LLMs) and their applications. This could mean either a MS or PhD in a quantitative field with at least 5 years experience in a business environment, or BS or Data Science Bootcamp graduate with at least 8 years of experience working as a data scientist or a machine learning engineer in a business setting.
• Proven experience in credit risk modeling or fraud risk modeling using logistic regression, random forest, Xgboost or neural networks, along with a strong understanding of AI-based approaches and the potential of LLMs to enhance traditional models.
• Experience applying a variety of statistical and modeling techniques using Python, R or another statistical modeling language, as indicated by familiarity with many of the following techniques - predictive modeling, anomaly detection, ensemble methods, natural language processing (NLP, optional). Basic understanding of LLMs and their applications.
• Strong programming skills - comfortable with all phases of the data science development process, from initial analysis and model development to deployment
• Excellent communication skills - able to effectively deliver findings and recommendations to non-technical stakeholders in a clear and compelling fashion

⭐ Desirable Experience

• PhD or Masters plus equivalent experience in a quantitative field is a plus
• Experience in the Fintech industry is a plus

🎁 Benefits

Our cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $227k -284k for San Francisco. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Gusto considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Gusto is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.