Herein are feature extraction mechanisms that receive parsed log messages as inputs and transform them into numerical feature vectors for machine learning models (MLMs). In an embodiment, a computer extracts fields from a log message. Each field specifies a name, a text value, and a type. For each field, a field transformer for the field is dynamically selected based the field's name and/or the field's type. The field transformer converts the field's text value into a value of the field's type. A feature encoder for the value of the field's type is dynamically selected based on the field's type and/or a range of the field's values that occur in a training corpus of an MLM. From the feature encoder, an encoding of the value of the field's typed is stored into a feature vector. Based on the MLM and the feature vector, the log message is detected as anomalous.