Job Detail

Senior Data Scientist, Payments Foundation Models

Data Science and AI Full–time
ID: #10251
Posted: 2026-03-12
Salary

Description

Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid. At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world. Join Visa and do work that matters — to you, to your community, and to the world. Progress starts with you. Job Description What it's all about - The Payments Foundation Models team is a new, high-impact initiative within Visa’s Data Science organisation. Based in Cambridge, UK, and working closely with global Visa engineering and product teams, the group’s mission is to build the next generation of payments-focused foundation AI models. These models will power a range of premium Risk and Identity Solutions (RaIS) products, such as fraud scores, with the goal of generating more than 100M dollars in new revenue by FY2030 and may be extended into other domains such as credit risk modelling or agentic commerce personalization. In your role as Senior Data Scientist – Payments Foundation Models you will help us achieve our goals and deliver success on behalf of our customers by: • * Developing, training, evaluating, documenting and disseminating Payments Foundation Models for use in data science and AI projects across Visa. • Collaborating across the organization with engineering, data science, research, product and commercial teams to improve the quality, adoption and real-world impact of our models. • This is a hands‑on technical role in the Individual Contributor track at the Consultant or Manager level, with scope to influence data science standards and practices while working on high‑impact, Visa‑scale systems. Responsibilities We hire people with a willingness to adapt to a variable role, so along with the key responsibilities below, we ask for ownership of any other duties as required. • * Collaborating with Product Managers & other members of the team to align on the highest value items to work on • Coordinating work across multiple teams & when needed, taking on additional “tech lead” responsibilities for driving initiatives to completion. • Identifying risks and testing assumptions before development • End‑to‑end processing and modelling of large data sets • Training deep learning models utilizing self‑supervised training, supervised fine‑tuning or adaptation approaches. • Ensuring new deep learning models successfully navigate model risk management processes, ensuring high quality documentation exists alongside analytics products (reports, presentations, visualizations) • Leading the deployment and maintenance of statistical models and algorithms • Collaborating with data engineers to identify and implement improvements to tooling. • Enabling both technical and non‑technical colleagues by effectively communicating insights learnt during data science work • Evangelizing on the benefits of deep learning models within Visa • Recruiting for Data Scientists within the team • Improving team processes and providing input to future team strategy • Mentoring more junior members of the team as well as managing and prioritising their workload to ensure high-quality output. • Developing a solid understanding of the fraud and financial crime industries This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager. Qualifications Preferred Qualifications • * Advanced degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, or related field. • Strong background in machine learning, statistical modeling, and data engineering. • Enthusiasm for bringing cutting‑edge deep learning models into production at Visa-wide scales. • Practical experience managing large-scale datasets and conducting end‑to‑end analytics projects. • Proficiency with programming languages such as Python or R, and familiarity with SQL and big data tools. • Technical and analytical skills with the ability to pick up new technologies and concepts quickly. • Problem solving skills (especially in data-centric applications). • Strong, clear, concise written and verbal communication skills. • Ability to manage and prioritise personal workload • Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders. • Proven ability to lead cross-functional projects and mentor junior team members. • Ph.D. or other postgraduate level qualification with good mathematical background and knowledge of statistics • Experience with fraud detection, risk analytics, or financial crime prevention. • Experience developing models within a model risk management framework. • Experience with version control software and workflows (e.g. git) • Experience with PyTorch or another deep learning framework • Familiarity with the training and serving of artificial neural networks • Subject matter expertise in the banking and payments industry. Additional Information Visa is an EEO Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law. #J-18808-Ljbffr

Hard Skills 13
Skill Source Confidence
Statistical Modeling llm_hard
100%
Python llm_hard
100%
PyTorch llm_hard
100%
Fine-tuning Models llm_hard
100%
Model Deployment llm_hard
100%
Git llm_hard
100%
Supervised Learning llm_hard
100%
Neural Networks llm_hard
100%
Deep Learning llm_hard
100%
SQL llm_hard
80%
R llm_hard
80%
Model Optimization llm_hard
80%
Large Language Models (LLMs) llm_hard
80%
Soft Skills 23
Skill Source Confidence
Problem-Solving llm_soft
100%
Stakeholder Communication llm_soft
100%
Analytical Thinking llm_soft
100%
Technical Writing llm_soft
100%
Prioritization llm_soft
100%
Documentation llm_soft
100%
Leadership llm_soft
100%
Verbal Communication llm_soft
100%
Written Communication llm_soft
100%
Team Leadership llm_soft
100%
Mentoring llm_soft
100%
Presentation Skills llm_soft
100%
Cross-Functional Communication llm_soft
100%
Collaboration llm_soft
100%
Cross-Team Collaboration llm_soft
100%
Goal Setting llm_soft
80%
People Management llm_soft
80%
Decision-Making llm_soft
80%
Teamwork llm_soft
80%
Critical Thinking llm_soft
80%
Adaptability llm_soft
80%
Project Management llm_soft
80%
Self-Management llm_soft
80%
Apply Options
Publisher Direct Link
Machine Learning Jobs No Apply
Artificial Intelligence Jobs No Apply
Experteer UK No Apply
Talents By StudySmarter No Apply
Jobijoba UK No Apply
DataScienceJobs.com No Apply
Talentify No Apply
UK Data Jobs Yes Apply
Machine Learning Jobs No Apply
API Logs for this Job
Query Country Status Response ms Created
Senior Data Scientist, Payments Foundation Models extracted 11035 2026-03-22 02:19
Senior Data Scientist, Payments Foundation Models classified 410 2026-03-21 20:58
junior data engineer in Cambridge gb duplicate 4101 2026-03-21 17:40
junior deep learning engineer in Cambridge gb duplicate 6681 2026-03-21 17:12
junior AI engineer in Cambridge gb duplicate 12168 2026-03-21 17:05
junior ML engineer in Cambridge gb duplicate 6140 2026-03-21 17:01
junior machine learning engineer in Cambridge gb duplicate 13933 2026-03-21 16:58
junior data scientist in Cambridge gb processed 3327 2026-03-21 16:55
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  "job_description": "Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.\n\nAt Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world. Join Visa and do work that matters — to you, to your community, and to the world.\n\nProgress starts with you.\n\nJob Description\nWhat it's all about -\n\nThe Payments Foundation Models team is a new, high-impact initiative within Visa’s Data Science organisation. Based in Cambridge, UK, and working closely with global Visa engineering and product teams, the group’s mission is to build the next generation of payments-focused foundation AI models. 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