--- title: Senior Research Scientist at Persona description: Persona is hiring for the Senior Research Scientist role in San Francisco, CA. Pays $190K–$250K per year. See the full description and apply. type: job url: https://www.foundrole.com/jobs/senior-research-scientist-at-persona-01a13cbc-3d37-74b5-8f28-015a8b01a2e1 date: 2026-10-15T00:15:56Z og_description: Join Persona as Senior Research Scientist in San Francisco, CA. Pays $190K–$250K per year. Full-time, hybrid role. og_image: https://www.foundrole.com/og/ldsviy.png breadcrumbs: - label: Home url: https://www.foundrole.com/ - label: Search url: https://www.foundrole.com/jobs --- | | | |---|---| | **Company** | Persona | | **Location** | San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) | | **Salary** | $190K/yr - $250K/yr | | **Type** | Full Time | | **Posted** | Oct 14, 2026 | ## Description **About Persona** [Persona](https://withpersona.com/) is the configurable identity platform built for businesses in a digital-first world. Verifying individuals and organizations is harder — but more important — than ever, with AI enabling fraudsters to launch sophisticated accounts at scale and regulations evolving rapidly. We’ve built Persona to support practically every use case and industry — that’s why we’re able to serve a wide range of leading companies. For example, Reddit relies on Persona for age assurance and verification to comply with online safety regulations, protecting younger users while maintaining a seamless experience. Meanwhile, OpenAI relies on Persona to keep bad actors out, protecting one of the world’s most powerful AI platforms from large-scale abuse in a time when AI is reshaping the way we work and live. We’re growing rapidly and looking for exceptional people to join us! ## **About the role** Proving who someone is online has never been harder or more important. You'll research how to detect fraud and verify identities more accurately. Your work will include detecting AI-generated and manipulated images, understanding how models perform across populations, and finding patterns in how attackers behave. You bring depth in at least one of computer vision, mathematics and statistics, or identity verification and fraud prevention. You test ideas with focused experiments and follow what the results show. You'll work with our ML and engineering teams to turn your findings into defenses for real customers, and you'll get to publish your work. ## **What you’ll do at Persona** - Lead research on open problems in identity verification and fraud prevention, using focused experiments to test new ideas quickly. - Develop methods to detect manipulated documents, AI-generated images and emerging fraud attacks. - Evaluate how reliably our models perform across different populations - Uncover the patterns in verification data that reveal fraud, and prove they're real signal and not noise. - Calibrate model confidence and measure fraud events with limited labeled data. - Partner with ML and engineering to turn research prototypes into production models. - Publish at top venues such as CVPR, NeurIPS and USENIX Security, and stay active in the research community. ## **What you’ll bring to Persona** - Deep expertise in one of the following: * **Computer vision:** research in image forensics, face analysis, generative models or representation learning. * **Mathematics and statistics:** strong foundation in areas such as probability, statistical inference, optimization, or applied mathematics, with experience applying it to empirical research. * **Identity or fraud prevention:** Experience researching identity verification, biometrics, fraud detection, out-of-distribution detection, adversarial behavior, or closely related security problems. - A PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related technical field is strongly preferred. We will also consider candidates with an MS and an exceptional research record. - A demonstrated record of peer-reviewed publications in relevant conferences or journals, with substantive contributions to the research. - Independently lead research, design rigorous experiments, and use results including negative or unexpected findings to guide next steps. - Clear communication, including the ability to explain experimental design, findings, and limitations to technical and non-technical audiences. ## **Nice to haves** - Research on deepfakes, presentation attacks or adversarial robustness. - Experience with noisy, imbalanced real-world data. - Experience shipping ML research to production. **Benefits and Perks** For full-time US-based employees (excluding internship and contractor opportunities), Persona offers a wide range of benefits, including medical, dental, and vision, 3% 401(k) contribution, unlimited PTO, quarterly mental health days, family planning benefits, professional development stipend, wellness benefits, among others. For full-time UK employees, Persona offers a wide range of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, a 6% employer pension contribution, unlimited PTO, a monthly wellness stipend, professional development stipend, co-working stipend, and more. As part of our interview process, all candidates will be asked to verify their identity with Persona. This step is used solely to confirm that candidates are who they say they are, and will have no impact on hiring decisions. ## Skills - Safety Regulations Compliance - Probability - Statistical Inference - Experimental Design - Lead Generation - Representation Learning - User Persona Development - Identity Verification - Biometrics - Statistics - Fraud Prevention - OpenAI - Computer Vision - Mathematics - Empirical Research - Store Presentation - Assertiveness - Fraud Detection - Computer Science - Communication - Adversarial Machine Learning - Machine Learning - Generative AI Foundations ## Benefits - Dental Insurance - Bereavement/Mental Health Leave - Paid Time Off (Pto) - 401(k) Plans - Health Insurance - Vision Insurance - Professional Development - Health and Wellness Stipends ## Related - [Science & Research jobs](https://www.foundrole.com/careers/science-and-research?utm_source=ai_markdown)- [Biomedical & Population Health Research jobs](https://www.foundrole.com/careers/science-and-research/biomedical-and-population-health-research?utm_source=ai_markdown)- [Research Scientist jobs](https://www.foundrole.com/careers/science-and-research/biomedical-and-population-health-research/research-scientist?utm_source=ai_markdown)- [Browse all companies](https://www.foundrole.com/companies?utm_source=ai_markdown) ## Explore this job market - [California](https://www.foundrole.com/locations/us/california?utm_source=ai_markdown) — 275241 jobs - [Software Products](https://www.foundrole.com/sectors/technology/software-products?utm_source=ai_markdown) — 113056 jobs - [San Francisco, CA](https://www.foundrole.com/locations/us/california/san-francisco?utm_source=ai_markdown) — 26824 jobs ## Related pages - [California](https://www.foundrole.com/locations/us/california?utm_source=ai_markdown) — 275241 jobs - [Software Products](https://www.foundrole.com/sectors/technology/software-products?utm_source=ai_markdown) — 113056 jobs - [San Francisco, CA](https://www.foundrole.com/locations/us/california/san-francisco?utm_source=ai_markdown) — 26824 jobs ## Browse - [Companies](https://www.foundrole.com/companies?utm_source=ai_markdown) - [Jobs by country](https://www.foundrole.com/locations?utm_source=ai_markdown) - [Jobs in the United States by state and city](https://www.foundrole.com/locations/us?utm_source=ai_markdown) - [H1B sponsors by location](https://www.foundrole.com/h1b-sponsors?utm_source=ai_markdown) - [H1B salaries](https://www.foundrole.com/h1b-salaries?utm_source=ai_markdown) - [Sectors and industries](https://www.foundrole.com/sectors?utm_source=ai_markdown) - [Jobs by career field](https://www.foundrole.com/careers?utm_source=ai_markdown) - [Latest jobs](https://www.foundrole.com/jobs/latest?utm_source=ai_markdown)