Director, Payments and Risk Operations

Our client is a leading B2B vertical SaaS platform that provides businesses with technology to manage critical operational and financial workflows. They are seeking a Director, Payments and Risk Operations to lead payments risk strategy and operations across the business. This leader will balance effective risk management with growth, helping customers move money with greater speed and less friction. The role owns the full payments risk lifecycle and will scale operations through AI, automation, analytics, and disciplined processes. This position will also influence commercialization strategy, partner closely with Product and Engineering, and build a high performing payments risk and operations team. Within the first year, this leader will establish a scalable risk operation that improves customer experience, strengthens decision making, and supports continued growth.

What You Will Do

• Own and evolve the end to end payments risk and operations strategy, including merchant onboarding, underwriting, transaction monitoring, disputes, servicing, and portfolio management.
• Build and strengthen fraud prevention and loss mitigation capabilities through scalable processes, continuous feedback loops, AI assisted solutions, and automation that improve decision making and operational efficiency.
• Evaluate, implement, and optimize AI powered fraud and risk platforms to scale operations through automation while maintaining a high quality customer experience.
• Lead and develop a high performing payments risk and operations team, establishing the structure, processes, and capabilities required to support long term growth.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to embed risk controls into payment experiences, onboarding journeys, payout configurations, APIs, and risk tooling, serving as the primary risk leader throughout product development.
• Develop risk analytics and reporting that provide real time operational insights and portfolio level visibility to support informed business and financial decisions.
• Partner with Compliance, Product Security, Engineering, Finance, Revenue, and business leadership to refine risk appetite, loss thresholds, and governance frameworks.
• Maintain alignment with regulatory requirements, sponsor bank expectations, and payment network rules.
• Use AI to enhance work while remaining open to learning, applying critical thinking, and maintaining ownership of final work quality.

What You Bring

• 7 or more years of progressive experience leading payments risk within vertical SaaS, marketplace, or fintech environments, with a track record of building and owning risk strategies that support business goals.
• 3 or more years of recent hands on risk experience across payment processing, ACH, and check disbursements, including underwriting, transaction monitoring, fraud prevention, and chargeback operations.
• Experience designing and implementing AI powered decisioning systems, automation, or fraud platforms that improve efficiency and strengthen risk management.
• A growth oriented approach to risk management, with experience evaluating risk and reward, making data driven decisions, and translating risk insights into meaningful financial and operational outcomes.
• Experience building scalable and efficient risk functions and optimizing processes without relying on large, specialized teams.
• Experience setting strategy, working directly in operational details when needed, and developing high performing teams.
• Experience influencing Product, Engineering, Finance, Compliance, and other cross functional leaders to deliver practical, scalable solutions.