Macro & Credit Research Economist

Engineering
San Francisco
Full-time
Apply
We build simple yet innovative consumer products and developer APIs that shape how everybody interacts with money and the financial system.
We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Washington D.C., London and Amsterdam.

The Macro & Economic Insights team is responsible for translating Plaid’s unique, high-frequency transaction and balance data into rigorous, forward-looking insights about household financial health, credit dynamics, and the broader economic cycle. The team builds internal indicators, research outputs, and external-facing analysis that leverage Plaid’s data advantage to inform strategy, products, and market narratives.
 
As the Macro and Credit Research Economist, you will build and own macroeconomic and credit indicators derived directly from raw transaction data. You will develop forecasting models, identify economic turning points, and produce rigorous analysis that informs internal decisions and external research.

Responsibilities:

  •  Work directly with large-scale, messy transaction data to build the transformations, filters, and statistical frameworks needed to extract reliable economic and credit-cycle signals.
  • Develop forecasting models that quantify household financial conditions, credit dynamics, and broader economic trends, emphasizing real-world performance and interpretability.
  • Identify leading indicators and turning points across liquidity, spending patterns, credit behavior, income stability, and other elements of household financial resilience.
  • Build methodologies that detect changes in economic regimes and risk conditions based on high-frequency data.
  • Produce rigorous backtests, scenarios, and real-time indicators that inform internal strategic decisions and external-facing research.
  • Create investor-grade written analyses, dashboards, and periodic briefings that synthesize model outputs with clear economic context.
  • Benchmark internal measures against official statistics and market expectations, highlighting where Plaid’s data provides differentiated early insight.
  • Collaborate with product, policy, comms, and GTM teams to shape how selected findings inform data products, strategic narratives, and outreach.

Qualifications:

  •  PhD in Economics (macro, finance, monetary, applied micro) or an equivalent quantitative field.
  • 4-8 years of applied experience in macro strategy, credit investing, systematic research, or consumer credit analytics.
  • Strong econometric and time-series modeling skills, with experience linking micro data to macro outcomes.
  • Proficiency in Python and SQL, with comfort working directly with large, noisy, high-frequency datasets.
  • Ability to independently build data pipelines and handle raw transaction data, rather than relying on pre-curated macroeconomic datasets.
  • Strong written communication skills suitable for investor and executive audiences.A practical, market-oriented approach focused on accuracy, robustness, and clear reasoning.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Preferred Experience in hedge funds, asset management, credit investing, central bank research, or fintech risk teams.
  • Familiarity with consumer credit behavior, household finance, and unsecured lending cycles.
  • Track record of forecasting under uncertainty with measurable performance.
  • Experience producing research or insights that influenced investment decisions or risk assessments
$226,800.00 - $315,600.00 per year

The target base salary for this position ranges from $226,800/year to $315600/year [in Zone ]. The target base salary will vary based on the job's location. 

Our geographic zones are as follows:
Zone 1 - San Francisco / New York City / Seattle
Zone 2 - Los Angeles /  Washington DC / Austin / Boston / Sacramento / San Diego
Zone 3 - Atlanta / Portland / Chicago / Philadelphia / Denver / Miami / Dallas / Raleigh
Zone 4 - All other US cities

The base salary range listed for this full-time position excludes commission (if applicable), equity and benefits. The pay range shown on each job posting is the minimum and maximum target for new-hire salaries. Actual pay may be higher or lower depending on factors like skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!

Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations@plaid.com.

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.

Other opportunities

  • London

    Engineering Manager - Europe

    See role

  • London

    Staff Software Engineer - Europe

    See role

  • New York

    Data Scientist - Fraud

    See role

  • New York

    Data Scientist - Network Value

    See role

  • New York

    Engineering Manager - Customer Growth & Experience

    See role

  • New York

    Engineering Manager - Data Partner Experience

    See role

  • New York

    Engineering Manager - Machine Learning Infrastructure

    See role

  • New York

    Engineering Manager - Payment Risk

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Data Scientist - Data Foundations & AI

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Data Scientist - Payments

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Data Scientist - Payments ACH

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Developer Relations Engineer - Customer Growth and Experience

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud (Research Scientist)

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Payments

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Software Engineer - Backend

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Software Engineer - Fullstack

    See role

  • New York

    Senior Software Engineer - ML Infrastructure

    See role

  • New York

    Software Engineer

    See role

  • New York

    Software Engineer - Platform

    See role

  • New York

    Staff Software Engineer - Money Movement

    See role

  • New York

    Staff Technical Program Manager - FinOps

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Data Engineer - Data Engineering

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Data Scientist - Fraud

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Data Scientist - Network Value

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Engineering Manager - Consumer

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Engineering Manager - Credit Distribution

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Engineering Manager - Customer Growth & Experience

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Engineering Manager - Intelligent Tooling

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Engineering Manager - Machine Learning Infrastructure

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Engineering Manager - Payment Risk

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Data Engineer - Data Engineering

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Data Scientist - Data Foundations & AI

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Data Scientist - Payments

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Data Scientist - Payments ACH

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Developer Relations Engineer - Customer Growth and Experience

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud (Research Scientist)

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Payments

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Software Engineer - AI Applications

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Software Engineer - Backend

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Software Engineer - Data Infrastructure

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Software Engineer - Fullstack

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Software Engineer - ML Infrastructure

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Senior Software Engineer - Network Enablement (Applied ML)

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Software Engineer

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Software Engineer - Platform

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Staff Software Engineer - AI Applications

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Staff Software Engineer - Money Movement

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Staff Software Engineer - Online Storage

    See role

  • San Francisco

    Staff Technical Program Manager - FinOps

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Data Scientist - Fraud

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Engineering Manager - Credit Distribution

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Data Engineer - Data Engineering

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Data Scientist - Data Foundations & AI

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Data Scientist - Payments

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Data Scientist - Payments ACH

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Developer Relations Engineer - Customer Growth and Experience

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud (Research Scientist)

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Payments

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Software Engineer - Backend

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Software Engineer - Data Infrastructure

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Senior Software Engineer - Fullstack

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Software Engineer

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Staff Software Engineer - Money Movement

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Staff Software Engineer - Online Storage

    See role

  • Seattle, WA

    Staff Technical Program Manager - FinOps

    See role

  • United States

    Senior Developer Relations Engineer - Customer Growth and Experience

    See role

  • United States

    Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud (Research Scientist)

    See role