Principal AI Applied Scientist

As a Principal AI Applied Scientist / AI Research Engineer, you will have the unique opportunity to build, train and deploy FICO’s diverse range of Foundational AI models which are LLMs designed to solve our customers’ business problems in areas like fraud, collections, financial services, financial education and FICO Platform software. You will play a crucial role in shaping the technology and architecture of our latest innovations, which encompasses domains across natural language, transactional, speech, vision and other modalities.

• Develop Focused Language Models, which are LLMs designed to solve our customers’ business problems in areas like fraud, collections, financial services operations, financial education and FICO Platform software.
• Implement novel architectures (transformers and others), optimizing distributed training pipelines (Pytorch/CUDA) for efficient pre and post training, building domain specific datasets and business-relevant benchmarks.
• Design and advance AI models and system innovations in close collaboration with cross-functional teams, including Product Management, Software Engineering, and Pre-Sales—to ensure high-quality performance and delivery.
• Communicating to high-level stakeholders internally and externally.
• Conduct hands-on analysis of large historical datasets to identify the best modeling techniques, demonstrating expertise in various algorithms and modeling processes with cutting-edge machine learning techniques.
• Guide and mentor scientists to support their career development.
• Drive innovation and inorganic growth of new and existing products through offering and promoting refined ideas.

• Excellent software engineering skills.
• In-depth hands‑on experience in Python, Rust and/or C++.
• Experience with pre/post training of modern AI architectures (transformers, encoders, decoders, diffusion).
• Real‑world experience with distributed systems and concurrency.
• Experience with Reinforcement Learning (RL), Simulation and/or Synthetic Data Generation.
• Prior experience managing, scaling and delivering high‑quality, on‑time AI/ML projects.
• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or related fields.
• Requires full‑time, on‑site presence at the FICO office in San Diego, CA.
• Willingness to travel up to 10%.

FICO is a leading analytics and decision management company that empowers businesses and individuals around the world with data‑driven insights. Known for pioneering the FICO® Score, a standard in consumer credit risk assessment, FICO combines advanced analytics, machine learning, and sophisticated algorithms to drive smarter, faster decisions across industries. From financial services to retail, insurance, and healthcare, FICO's innovative solutions help organizations make precise decisions, reduce risk, and enhance customer experiences.

With a strong commitment to ethical use of AI and data, FICO is dedicated to improving financial access and inclusivity, fostering trust, and driving growth for a digitally evolving world