Nick Zhang
Staff Data Scientist, Team Lead
P2P & Content Risk AI · Binance · Singapore
Building AI systems that protect people at scale.
Hey, I'm Nick. I lead the P2P and Content Risk AI team at Binance — built from scratch to protect millions of users from scams and abuse. Before Binance, I did my PhD at NTU and published in IEEE Transactions on evolutionary machine learning and neuroevolution.
Outside of work, I live in Singapore with my wife and our two cats, Bobby and Bailey. I work remotely, so I have to drag myself out for runs and gym sessions to stay sane. In my downtime, I'm usually watching films — big fan of Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and Wong Kar-wai.
9 yrs
Applied ML & AI
0 → 4
Team built from scratch
PhD
NTU, Computer Science
Currently thinking about
Agentic Systems — Multi-agent workflows are getting good enough to replace entire teams. Watching this closely.
AI Policy & Governance — Doing an LLM at SMU to understand how regulation should actually work — not just the theory.
Risk & Safety at Scale — What responsible AI looks like when you're protecting hundreds of millions of users in real time.
Co-workers at home
Head of Meal Demands
Head of ChaosBinance
CurrentSingapore · Feb 2022 – Present
I built the P2P & Content Risk AI team from scratch — a lean, high-impact team hired, structured, and grown to protect millions of users across Binance's P2P trading, Chat, and Customer Service platforms. Day to day, this means shipping multilingual LLMs, real-time fraud detection pipelines, and agentic AI systems that run at global scale.
PayPal
Senior Risk Analyst (ML)
Jun 2021 – Jan 2022
Identified high-risk merchants before fraud or bankruptcy using ML models and risk rules — think Minority Report, but for payments.
PayPal
Research Engineer (Data Science)
Aug 2018 – Aug 2019
Researched and built an ML-based seller risk profiling model that shipped to production.
Earlier
Full-stack development with a focus on data modelling, NLP, and statistical analysis.
Implemented the Number Field Sieve algorithm in C++ to crack the Discrete Logarithm Problem.
Taught Algorithms & Computing I (Matlab) to undergraduates.
PhD, Computer Science
Nanyang Technological University
Thesis: Lean Evolutionary Machine Learning by Multitasking Simpler and Hard Tasks
Supervised by: Prof. Ong Yew Soon and Dr. Abhishek Gupta
LLM, Law and Technology
In ProgressSingapore Management University
Selected Courses
- ›Blockchain and Governance
- ›Asian and Global Trends in IT Law
- ›Data Governance
- ›Financial Regulation in Singapore, Hong Kong and Greater China
BSc (Hons), Applied Mathematics
Nanyang Technological University
Evolutionary Machine Learning with Minions: A Case Study in Feature Selection
IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation
Addresses computational challenges in evolutionary algorithms through multitasking approaches.
Multitask Neuroevolution for Reinforcement Learning with Long and Short Episodes
IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems
Introduces the NuEMT algorithm for data-efficient evolutionary reinforcement learning.
AI / Machine Learning
Data Science
Infrastructure
Leadership
Languages
Open to conversations about data science, AI research, collaboration, or opportunities. Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or email.