Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager - Risk and Fraud

Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager - Risk and Fraud at Coinbase

Ready to be pushed beyond what you think you’re capable of? At Coinbase, our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. It’s a massive, ambitious opportunity that demands the best of us, every day, as we build the emerging onchain platform — and with it, the future global financial system.

To achieve our mission, we’re seeking a very specific candidate. We want someone who is passionate about our mission and who believes in the power of crypto and blockchain technology to update the financial system. We want someone who is eager to leave their mark on the world, who relishes the pressure and privilege of working with high caliber colleagues, and who actively seeks feedback to keep leveling up. We want someone who will run towards, not away from, solving the company’s hardest problems.

Our work culture is intense and isn’t for everyone. But if you want to build the future alongside others who excel in their disciplines and expect the same from you, there’s no better place to be.

While many roles at Coinbase are remote-first, we are not remote-only. In-person participation is required throughout the year. Team and company-wide offsites are held multiple times annually to foster collaboration, connection, and alignment. Attendance is expected and fully supported.

About the Role

Coinbase's Risk AI/ML team is on a mission to make Coinbase the most trusted and easy-to-use platform in crypto. We build the sophisticated, scalable, and blockchain-aware ML systems that protect our customers from fraud, account takeovers (ATO), and scams. Our work is a core enabler for the business, allowing us to safely offer products like instant withdrawals, guest checkout, and new payment methods.

We are looking for a seasoned AI/ML leader to manage and scale our Risk AI/ML organization. In this high-impact role, you will be responsible for setting the strategic vision, leading multiple teams of managers and engineers, and owning the end-to-end ML systems that manage risk across Coinbase. This is a critical leadership position that partners directly with senior leaders in product, engineering, and operations to protect our users and the business.

What You’ll Be Doing (Job Duties)

• Lead, manage, and scale the Risk AI/ML organization, fostering a culture of technical excellence and rapid execution.
• Define and execute the multi-year technical and strategic roadmap for Risk AI/ML, identifying new threats and opportunities in the crypto ecosystem.
• Directly manage and mentor other ML managers and senior technical leads, growing their careers and impact.
• Guide a 25+ person organization to design, build, and deploy the next generation of risk models (e.g., for Scams, ATO, Payments, and On-Chain Fraud) that have a direct, measurable impact on business goals.
• Take full ownership of the end-to-end ML systems for Risk, from feature engineering and model development to live production monitoring and performance.
• Serve as the primary AI/ML voice for the Risk domain, collaborating with VPs and Directors in Product, Engineering, and Operations to turn complex business problems into a tangible ML roadmap.
• Work with our talent organization to attract, hire, and retain top-tier ML managers and engineers.

What We Look For In You (Must Haves)

• Senior Management Experience: 10+ years of working experience in machine learning and 5+ years of ML/engineering management experience, with at least 2 years of experience managing other managers (managing through others).
• Deep Risk Domain Expertise: Proven experience and deep domain knowledge in the Risk, Fraud or Trust & Safety space. You have a track record of building ML systems to combat adversarial behavior (e.g., fraud, scams, account takeover, payment risk).
• Strategic Leadership: Experience setting a multi-quarter strategic roadmap for multiple ML teams and interfacing with senior-level (VP/Director) partners to drive business outcomes.
• Technical Credibility: Strong technical background in modern machine learning techniques and platforms (e.g., supervised/unsupervised learning, deep learning, MLOps, and common ML platforms like Tensorflow/PyTorch).
• Hiring & Team Building: A strong track record of hiring and developing top-performing ML managers and engineers.
• Execution Focus: An execution-focused mindset with a proven ability to navigate ambiguity, break down complex problems, and lead a large organization to deliver results.
• Strong Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical senior audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Previous experience in FinTech or Crypto.
• Experience applying advanced ML techniques to risk problems (e.g., Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Transformers, LLMs, anomaly detection).
• Deep expertise with high-performance ML serving and MLOps platforms.

Key skills/competency

• Machine Learning Leadership
• Fraud Detection
• Risk Management
• Strategic Planning
• Team Management
• MLOps
• Deep Learning
• Stakeholder Management
• Adversarial AI
• System Scalability