# Senior Data Scientist, Detection

**Company:** [Cloudflare](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/cloudflare)
**Location:** New York, NY
**Role:** Data Science
**Salary:** $185k – $231k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Python, SQL, Machine Learning, Statistics, AI, LLMs, Generative AI, Data Science, Fraud Detection, bot detection
**Posted:** 2026-07-15

> Senior Data Scientist researching, designing, and deploying ML detection models for fraud, bots, and malicious activity at Cloudflare's Internet-scale. Requires 5-7 years experience, strong ML/stats fundamentals, and Python/SQL proficiency.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Research, design, and evaluate detection models that identify automated, fraudulent, and malicious activity across Internet-scale data.
- Dig into massive datasets to uncover the patterns and behaviors that distinguish adversaries from legitimate users.
- Define how detection success is measured, designing metrics and evaluation strategies for problems where ground truth is noisy, delayed, or contested.
- Stay current on emerging AI/ML research and evaluate how new techniques (e.g., LLMs, generative AI) can be applied to our products.
- Partner with ML Engineers, Data Engineers, and Product to take detection approaches from research to production and measure their real-world impact.

## Requirements
- Experience across fraud, abuse, and/or bot detection on large, high-velocity traffic.
- Strong fundamentals in applied statistics, machine learning, and AI methodology; choose the right technique for the problem and fluency with large-scale data.
- At least 5-7 years of experience professionally working in Data Science, ML Engineering, or Software Engineering.
- Very comfortable with Python & SQL in production environments.

## Nice-to-Haves
- At home in ground truth ambiguity: make real progress with weak, delayed, or absent labels and energized by adversaries that fight back.
- 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: know when a simple solution beats a complex one, and don't chase small gains at disproportionate cost.
- Disciplined in code: apply strong programming and engineering best practices in both research and production code.
- Impact-driven and clear: connect your work to business impact and communicate clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

## Compensation
For New York City based hires: Estimated annual salary of $185,000 - $231,000.

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