Data Scientist

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:

We are seeking a highly analytical and detail-oriented Fraud Data Scientist to join our team. In this role, you will play a critical part in identifying, preventing, and mitigating fraudulent activity across our platforms. You will leverage advanced data analytics, machine learning, and statistical techniques to detect fraud patterns, design real-time detection systems, and support fraud investigation teams with actionable insights.

Job Description:

Essential Responsibilities

• Strong proficiency in SQL for complex data querying, data wrangling, and validation within large fraud datasets.
• Ability to develop data-driven strategies to proactively identify fraud, leveraging machine learning models and engineered features while maintaining the lowest possible friction for legitimate customers.
• Experience with Python for data analysis and analyze fraud patterns.
• Experience developing dashboards
• Ability to work with ambiguous and incomplete data sets, including leveraging proxy data sources when direct data is unavailable to detect fraudulent behavior effectively.
• Expertise in analyzing and modeling fraud detection problems, developing data-driven solutions that balance precision and recall.
• Solid understanding of statistical concepts to interpret model results and provide feedback
• Payments fraud domain knowledge is highly preferred, with an understanding of transaction flows, payment systems, and common fraud tactics.
• Experience conducting and analyzing A/B tests to evaluate the impact of fraud detection models and mitigation strategies.
• Familiarity with common fraud data sources such as transactions, user behavior logs, device metadata, and third-party data

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum of 2 years of relevant work experience and a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualification:

• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills to dissect complex fraud scenarios and identify underlying patterns or anomalies.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present complex technical findings clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated owner mindset—takes end-to-end responsibility for fraud detection initiatives, continuously improving strategies and identify new product ideas to strengthen fraud detection
• Comfortable navigating ambiguous business problems with minimal guidance and proactively proposing innovative solutions.
• Ability to work collaboratively across teams including risk, product, and engineering to implement fraud mitigation strategies.

Subsidiary:

PayPal

Travel Percent:

0

For the majority of employees, PayPal's balanced hybrid work model offers 3 days in the office for effective in-person collaboration and 2 days at your choice of either the PayPal office or your home workspace, ensuring that you equally have the benefits and conveniences of both locations.

Our Benefits:

At PayPal, we’re committed to building an equitable and inclusive global economy. And we can’t do this without our most important asset—you. That’s why we offer benefits to help you thrive in every stage of life. We champion your financial, physical, and mental health by offering valuable benefits and resources to help you care for the whole you.

We have great benefits including a flexible work environment, employee shares options, health and life insurance and more. To learn more about our benefits please visit https://www.paypalbenefits.com.

Who We Are:

Click Here to learn more about our culture and community.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion 

PayPal provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.  In addition, PayPal will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.  If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at talentaccommodations@paypal.com.  

Belonging at PayPal: 

Our employees are central to advancing our mission, and we strive to create an environment where everyone can do their best work with a sense of purpose and belonging. Belonging at PayPal means creating a workplace with a sense of acceptance and security where all employees feel included and valued. We are proud to have a diverse workforce reflective of the merchants, consumers, and communities that we serve, and we continue to take tangible actions to cultivate inclusivity and belonging at PayPal.

Any general requests for consideration of your skills, please Join our Talent Community.

We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don’t hesitate to apply.