Principal Data Scientist, Detection

Cloudflare•San Francisco, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Cloudflare’s Engineering Team is home to some of the industry’s top engineers, dedicated to building and scaling innovative software that handles a huge proportion of the Internet. Our Detection department sits at the heart of that mission: we identify automated, fraudulent, and malicious activity across the Internet and through our gateway. We develop advanced detection systems and machine learning models that operate at scale, collaborating with Product and Engineering teams across the company to protect our customers and stay ahead of the constantly evolving threat landscape.

Requirements

Fraud and bots at scale. You have experience across fraud, abuse, and/or bot detection on large, high-velocity traffic. You may focus on one, but you transfer instincts between them.
Strong fundamentals, fluent in data. You have solid applied statistics, machine learning, and AI methodology fundamentals. You choose the right technique for the problem, and are fluent with large-scale data.
You have at least 8-10 years of experience professionally working in Data Science, ML Engineering, or Software Engineering.
Demonstrated ability to make ambiguous, high-stakes technical decisions with incomplete information.
You are very comfortable with Python & SQL in production environments.

Nice To Haves

At home in ground truth ambiguity. Building detections when ground truth is scarce is the heart of this job. You make real progress with weak, delayed, or absent labels and you're energized by adversaries that fight back.
You don't burn signals. You understand (or are curious to learn) how to act on detections without tipping your hand, knowing that how you deploy and respond can erode your future visibility.
Pragmatic about complexity. You know when a simple solution beats a complex one, and you don't chase small gains at disproportionate cost.
Disciplined in code. You apply strong programming and engineering best practices in both research and production code.
Impact-driven and clear. You connect your work to business impact and communicate clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Lead the research, design, and evaluate detection models that identify automated, fraudulent, and malicious activity across Internet-scale data
Mentor others in how to uncover patterns and behaviors that distinguish adversaries from legitimate users.
Own the detection measurement framework, defining metrics and evaluation strategies for problems where ground truth is noisy, delayed, or contested.
Drive adoption of promising AI/ML techniques and represent Cloudflare in the broader research community.
Drive cross-functional partnerships with ML Engineers, Data Engineers, and Product; Influence roadmaps and align detection strategy with company priorities.
Shape long-term detection strategy, identifying gaps and opportunities that span multiple product areas.

Benefits

Medical/Rx Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Flexible Spending Accounts
Commuter Spending Accounts
Fertility & Family Forming Benefits
On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program
Global Travel Medical Insurance
Short and Long Term Disability Insurance
Life & Accident Insurance
401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
Employee Stock Participation Plan
Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave
Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave