Lead Merchant Risk Analyst

This position is posted by Jobgether on behalf of a partner company. We are currently looking for a Lead Merchant Risk Analyst in the United States.

This role sits at the center of merchant trust and marketplace safety within a fast-scaling fintech environment.
You will lead deep analytical work across the full merchant risk lifecycle, from onboarding through ongoing transaction monitoring.
Your insights will directly shape fraud prevention strategies, merchant experience, and consumer protection outcomes.
Working cross-functionally with Data Science, Product, Compliance, and Engineering, you will help design scalable risk systems.
The environment is highly data-driven, collaborative, and focused on building automation and AI-enabled risk workflows.
This is a high-impact individual contributor role where strong judgment, technical depth, and ownership drive real business decisions.

Lead end-to-end analytical efforts across the merchant risk lifecycle, including onboarding (KYB/KYC), transaction monitoring, and merchant decisioning to ensure safe and scalable growth.

• Build and maintain advanced SQL queries, dashboards, alerts, and reporting systems to detect fraud patterns, emerging risks, and control gaps.
• Investigate high-risk merchant behavior such as misrepresentation, suspicious transactions, refund abuse, and account takeover activity.
• Translate complex analytical findings into clear, actionable recommendations that improve fraud controls, merchant experience, and business performance.
• Evaluate the impact of risk strategies, rule changes, and experiments on fraud losses, approval rates, and false positives.
• Partner with Data Science and Engineering teams to improve risk models, data quality, monitoring systems, and automation frameworks.
• Contribute to the development of scalable, AI-enabled workflows and risk decisioning systems.
• Identify emerging fraud trends and continuously strengthen merchant risk strategy and operational resilience.

Requirements:

5+ years of experience in fraud analytics, merchant risk, payments risk, or financial services analytics, ideally in a high-growth or fintech environment.

• Strong SQL expertise and hands-on experience with Python, R, SAS, or similar analytical tools.
• Experience working with fraud models, machine learning outputs, or rules-based risk detection systems.
• Familiarity with KYB/KYC, merchant onboarding, identity and business verification, sanctions screening, or fraud vendor integrations.
• Proven ability to collaborate with Data Science and Engineering teams on scalable risk monitoring and decisioning systems.
• Strong analytical thinking with the ability to balance fraud prevention, customer experience, compliance, and business growth.
• Excellent communication skills with strong ownership, judgment, and ability to operate in ambiguous environments.
• Experience leveraging AI tools or automation to improve workflows is a strong plus.

Benefits:

• Competitive base salary range: $120,800 – $169,100 USD, plus equity and performance-based incentives
• Comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance
• Equity opportunities in a fast-growing fintech organization
• Flexible, remote-first work environment across the United States
• Exposure to advanced AI-driven risk systems and automation initiatives
• Opportunity to work on high-impact financial products shaping merchant and consumer trust
• Collaborative, mission-driven culture focused on responsible growth and innovation.