AI & ML Tech Lead

About Payoneer

Founded in 2005, Payoneer is the global financial platform that removes friction from doing business across borders, with a mission to connect the world's underserved businesses to a rising global economy. We're a community with over 2,500 colleagues all over the world, working to serve customers, and partners in over 190 markets.

By taking the complexity out of the financial workflows–including everything from global payments and compliance, to multi-currency and workforce management, to providing working capital and business intelligence–we give businesses the tools they need to work efficiently worldwide and grow with confidence.

Role summary:
We are seeking a hands-on Tech Lead to be the first technical hire for our newly formed ML team. This is a unique ground-floor opportunity to build something from scratch and have direct influence on the technical direction of our ML capabilities. This role combines deep technical expertise with foundational leadership, requiring someone who can architect solutions, establish technical standards, and lay the groundwork for future team growth. As our founding ML tech lead, you'll have the opportunity to shape our technology choices, define our technical practices, and build the fundamental skill set that will guide the team as we scale.

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Hybrid

Full-time

What you'll do:

Shape the technical foundation: As our first ML hands on hire, choose and establish the team's core technology stack, frameworks, and development practices together with the ML leader
Build from the ground up: Design and implement our initial ML infrastructure, data pipelines, and model deployment frameworks
Define technical standards: Establish coding standards, best practices, and processes that will guide future team members
Hands-on development: Lead by example through direct development and deployment of ML models and data science solutions
Partner with stakeholders: Work closely with business teams to identify initial ML opportunities and build foundational proof-of-concept models
Establish MLOps practices: Set up our model development, testing, deployment, and monitoring workflows from scratch
Recruit and onboard: As the team grows, play a key role in technical interviews and help onboard new ML engineers and data scientists
Create team culture: Help establish the team's technical culture, learning practices, and collaboration methods
Technology evaluation: Research and select the tools, platforms, and technologies that will form our ML tech stack
Document and share knowledge: Create foundational documentation and knowledge-sharing practices for the growing team

Who you are?

6+ years of hands-on experience in Machine Learning, Data Science, or related technical roles in the industry
Entrepreneurial mindset: Excited about building something new and comfortable with the ambiguity of a startup-like environment within a larger company
Proven track record of building and deploying machine learning models in production environments
Technology leadership experience: History of making technical stack decisions and establishing development practices
Strong proficiency in ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn) and programming languages (Python, SQL)
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and MLOps tools and practices
Team building skills: Ability to establish technical culture and practices that will scale with team growth
Excellent communication skills with ability to explain technical concepts to stakeholders and influence technical decisions
Self-starter mentality: Comfortable taking ownership, making decisions, and driving initiatives independently
Master's degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Mathematics, or related quantitative field- PhD is a plus
Experience in fintech or financial services is a plus
Bonus: Experience being a founding engineer or early hire in a technical team

#LI-Hybrid
#LI-CA1

The Payoneer Ways of Working

Act as our customer's partner on the inside
Learning what they need and creating what will help them go further.

Continuously improve
Always striving for a higher standard than our last.

Do it. Own it.
Being fearlessly accountable in everything we do.

Build each other up
Helping each other grow, as professionals and people.

If this sounds like a business, a community, and a mission you want to be part of, click now to apply.

We are committed to providing a diverse and inclusive workplace. Payoneer is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment no matter your race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you require reasonable accommodation at any stage of the hiring process, please speak to the recruiter managing the role for any adjustments. Decisions about requests for reasonable accommodation are made on a case-by-case basis.