PayPal · 1 week ago
Sr Staff Machine Learning Scientist, Agentic AI
Chicago, IL
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$188K/yr - $324K/yr
7+ years expPayPal is a global leader in commerce, creating innovative experiences for consumers and businesses. They are seeking a Senior Staff Machine Learning Scientist to drive the evolution of Venmo’s Agentic Experiences by designing and developing intelligent AI systems that enhance user interaction.
E-Commerce PlatformsFinTechMobile PaymentsTransaction Processing
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
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, safety, and personalization
Implement and extend agentic frameworks such as A2A (Agent-to-Agent), MCP (Model Context Protocol), LangGraph, or similar, to enable complex, multi-agent interactions
Perform advanced context and prompt engineering, optimizing model responses and orchestrating multi-turn, multi-source interactions
Collaborate closely with product, design, and platform engineering teams to shape Venmo’s next-generation Agentic product capabilities and AI interface roadmap
Experiment with reinforcement learning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and online adaptation to improve agent behavior and response quality
Develop scalable, production-ready LLM and agentic pipelines, including data preparation, model training, evaluation, and continuous improvement
Communicate insights and technical trade-offs clearly across technical and business teams to guide decision-making and influence Venmo’s broader AI strategy
Qualification
Required
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
Master's degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative discipline
7+ years of relevant industry experience (or 6+ years with a PhD)
Deep understanding of Transformer architectures and hands-on experience with fine-tuning LLMs for production use cases
Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX
Demonstrated experience with Agentic frameworks such as A2A, MCP, LangGraph, or LangChain, and an understanding of Agent-Oriented Design patterns
Experience building context-aware conversational systems, integrating multi-source data for reasoning and response generation
Familiarity with evaluation methods for LLMs and agentic systems, including prompt testing, offline metrics, and human feedback loops
Experience with MLOps and LLMOps workflows, including model deployment, monitoring, and iterative retraining at scale
Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate across engineering, research, and product teams
Preferred
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, safety, and personalization
Implement and extend agentic frameworks such as A2A (Agent-to-Agent), MCP (Model Context Protocol), LangGraph, or similar, to enable complex, multi-agent interactions
Perform advanced context and prompt engineering, optimizing model responses and orchestrating multi-turn, multi-source interactions
Collaborate closely with product, design, and platform engineering teams to shape Venmo's next-generation Agentic product capabilities and AI interface roadmap
Experiment with reinforcement learning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and online adaptation to improve agent behavior and response quality
Develop scalable, production-ready LLM and agentic pipelines, including data preparation, model training, evaluation, and continuous improvement
Communicate insights and technical trade-offs clearly across technical and business teams to guide decision-making and influence Venmo's broader AI strategy
Benefits
Flexible work environment
Employee shares options
Health and life insurance
Medical, dental, vision, and other benefits
Company
PayPal
PayPal is a financial service company that provides online payment solutions to its users worldwide.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
PayPal has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (1144)
2024 (917)
2023 (775)
2022 (921)
2021 (1051)
2020 (1049)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$12.17BKey Investors
Kohlberg Kravis RobertsBlueRun Ventures
2025-11-17Post Ipo Debt· $6.95B
2023-06-07Post Ipo Debt· $5B
2015-07-20IPO
Leadership Team
Simon Bladon
PayPal UK CEO
chaloem khompitoon
President & CEO
Recent News
2026-01-14
2026-01-13
The Real Deal
2026-01-13
Company data provided by crunchbase