Founding Research Engineer, AI

**About Adyen:**

Adyen is a global fintech platform powering payments, data, and financial services for companies like Meta, Uber, Spotify, and Nike. We're profitable, publicly traded (AMS: ADYEN), and building a new AI research hub in San Francisco. This is a rare opportunity to join as a founding engineer and play a critical role in shaping how we apply AI across our global platform.

**About The Role:**

We're hiring a Founding Research Engineer (AI) to help launch this team. You'll work directly with our SVP of Engineering and be the first AI research hire in San Francisco, helping define our strategy and ship applied AI systems—focused on areas like foundational models, agentic workflows around identity and risk.

This hands-on role requires deep technical skill, strong product intuition, and a drive to build. You'll prototype AI features, implement research into production-quality systems, and collaborate with global teams to integrate AI into existing products and internal tooling.

**Responsibilities:**

*   Act as a founding member of Adyen''s San Francisco AI hub—rapidly prototype AI features and implement research into production-quality systems.
*   Translate cutting-edge research papers into robust, scalable code that delivers measurable business value.
*   Collaborate closely with global engineering and product teams to integrate AI into existing products and internal tooling.
*   Contribute to research efforts in areas such as AI agents for operational workflows, human-in-the-loop systems for Integrity Risk, and experimentation with foundational models.
*   Stay connected to the AI research community in San Francisco, attending key events and surfacing relevant trends or partnership opportunities.
*   Help shape the long-term vision for AI at Adyen, including how AI interacts with consumers, merchants, and financial institutions.
*   Define and track success metrics for your research implementations, ensuring they drive meaningful and visible impact.
*   Optionally, contribute to hiring and mentoring as we grow the team in San Francisco.

**Requirements:**

*   Highly technical research engineer with deep understanding of AI, especially Generative AI and LLMs.
*   Track record of implementing cutting-edge research into robust, scalable code.\n*   Strong engineering mindset with clean, efficient code.
*   Experience mentoring or guiding others.
*   Ability to thrive in ambiguity and build from scratch.
*   Deep technical skill, strong product intuition, and drive to build.

**Nice-to-Haves:**
*   Experience at AI-fintech intersection.
*   Classical ML or hybrid infrastructure experience.
*   Open-source contributions, conference talks, or publications.
*   Strong product sense.

**Compensation:**
The annual base salary range for this role is $228,000 - $400,000, plus RSUs. This is an exceptional opportunity to join a solid, established company with a startup mindset, characterized by small teams and direct communication.

**Location:** San Francisco (office-first).