Data Scientist

Middesk
San Francisco
Remote

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior data scientists with fraud domain expertise who thrive in remote, hands-on technical roles building production systems.

Best fit for

  • Fraud detection specialists comfortable with imbalanced datasets and adversarial patterns.
    — “worked on real-world fraud or abuse problems
  • Production-focused engineers who prioritize impact over theoretical perfection.
    — “focus on impact over perfection
  • Data scientists experienced with graph-based approaches to risk detection.
    — “Apply graph-based approaches and entity resolution techniques

Things to consider

  • Requires deep familiarity with fraud domain beyond just modeling skills.
    — “understand how bad actors behave
  • Involves working with inherently messy data and sparse signals.
    — “messy, real-world data

How to stand out

  • Demonstrate specific examples of shipping fraud systems with measurable impact.
    — “deployed models or data-driven systems that power external-facing products
  • Highlight experience balancing model accuracy with system maintainability.
    — “balance speed, accuracy, and maintainability
  • Showcase projects using weak supervision or LLMs for labeling.
    — “Use a mix of heuristics, weak supervision, and modern AI tools
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Building fraud & risk systems
  • Improving signal & labeling
Typical background
4+ years of experience in fraud, risk, or trust & safety

Skills & requirements

Required

Fraud & Risk Systems DesignExperience With Graph Or Relational Data ApproachesStrong Foundation In Applied ML Or Data SystemsHands-on And Pragmatic Approach

Preferred

Experience With Llms

Stack & domain

Fraud & Risk SystemsGraph-based Approaches And Entity Resolution TechniquesHeuristics, Weak Supervision, And Modern Ai ToolsFeature Generation, Model Training, And Production DeploymentHands-on And PragmaticFocus On Impact Over PerfectionBalance Speed, Accuracy, And MaintainabilityFraud DetectionRisk ManagementAi Applications

About the role

As a Data Scientist at Middesk, you'll dive into the complexities of real-world data to build robust fraud and risk systems, making you a key player in enhancing the company's identity verification processes. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a hands-on environment, tackling messy data and evolving adversarial behaviors with a pragmatic approach.

Original posting from Middesk via Ashby

About Middesk

Middesk makes it easier for businesses to work together. Since 2018, we’ve been transforming business identity verification, replacing slow, manual processes with seamless access to complete, up-to-date data. Our platform helps companies across industries confidently verify business identities, onboard customers faster, and reduce risk at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

Middesk came out of Y Combinator, is backed by Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners, and was recently named to Forbes Fintech 50 List.

THE ROLE

We’re building AI-driven applications that simplify customer workflows, starting with business onboarding. With our proprietary identity data and deep domain expertise, we’re in a strong position to expand into a broader set of intelligent, risk-aware products.

We’re looking for a hands-on engineer to help build the foundation for these systems. This role is less about inventing new ML algorithms and more about applying the right techniques to messy, real-world problems. You’ve worked in fraud, risk, or trust domains, and you understand how bad actors behave, how data breaks, and how to still ship reliable systems anyway.

This is a highly technical, hands-on role with broad influence over how we design, build, and scale data-driven systems at Middesk.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

  • Build fraud & risk systems

Design and ship production systems that detect and prevent fraud across KYB, trust & safety, and compliance workflows.

  • Work with messy, real-world data

Tackle problems with extreme class imbalance, sparse signals, evolving adversarial behavior, and limited ground truth.

  • Leverage relationships in data

Apply graph-based approaches and entity resolution techniques to uncover hidden connections and improve risk detection.

  • Improve signal & labeling

Use a mix of heuristics, weak supervision, and modern AI tools (including LLMs where appropriate) to generate better features and labels.

  • Help scale our infrastructure

Partner with engineering to build and evolve systems for feature generation, model training, and production deployment across multiple use cases.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

  • 4+ years of experience in fraud, risk, or trust & safety

You’ve worked on real-world fraud or abuse problems and understand the domain deeply.

  • Experience building and shipping production systems

You’ve deployed models or data-driven systems that power external-facing products.

  • Strong foundation in applied ML or data systems

Comfortable working on classification problems with real-world constraints like imbalanced data, sparse signals, and changing patterns.

  • Experience with graph or relational data approaches

Familiarity with knowledge graphs, network analysis, or entity linking is strongly preferred.

  • Hands-on and pragmatic

You focus on impact over perfection and know how to balance speed, accuracy, and maintainability.

Source: Middesk careers (Ashby)

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