Staff Data Scientist

Visa•Bellevue, WA

2d•$145,300 - $232,700•Hybrid

About The Position

Visa’s Post Purchase organization is building AI-driven decision intelligence across dispute resolution and recovery products, including RDR, CDRN, VDRN, and Recover. We are seeking a Staff Data Scientist to lead high-impact machine learning initiatives that improve automation, recovery outcomes, and client experience at global scale. This is a Staff-level individual contributor role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, owns complex problem spaces, and drives solutions from concept through production with measurable business impact. You will work with large-scale transactions and dispute data to develop models that enhance decision quality and enable scalable, intelligent systems.

Requirements

5+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 2 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 0 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 8+ years of relevant work experience
Experience with digital fluency, including the ability to work with emerging technologies such as Generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot) to support everyday work

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in AI, Computer Science, Statistics, Operations Research, or a related quantitative field
Experience applying data science or analytics solutions to solve complex business problems with measurable outcomes
Proven track record of commercializing analytical or ML solutions in production environments
Strong experience managing or leading end-to-end projects across cross-functional teams
Agile experience and ability to manage evolving priorities in dynamic environments
Experience working with large-scale datasets and building scalable models
Experience with distributed data processing frameworks (e.g., Hadoop, Hive, Spark)
Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R, along with SQL
Experience with version control tools such as git or GitHub
Hands-on experience applying machine learning and predictive modeling tecniques to business problems
Experience in data science, data engineering, or analytics roles in large-scale environments
Experience in payments, fraud, risk, disputes, fintech, or transaction-heavy domains
Experience working in global organizations with distributed stakeholders
Proven ability to lead projects, influence teams, and provide technical thought leadership

Responsibilities

Define and lead high-impact ML initiatives across dispute decisioning, merchant matching, and recovery prediction
Own end-to-end ML lifecycle, including problem framing, feature engineering, model development, deployment, and monitoring
Build and productionize scalable models using large-scale transaction and dispute datasets
Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Data Engineering to translate business needs into data-driven solutions
Drive adoption of ML solutions through explainability, performance measurement, and stakeholder alignment
Develop experimentation frameworks to evaluate and continuously improve model performance
Design and implement GenAI/LLM-based solutions for explainability, workflow automation, and decision support
Influence product strategy by identifying opportunities to improve automation, efficiency, and customer outcomes
Mentor junior team members and contribute to best practices across the data science organization