Director of Risk

Summary

Join CardFlight as the Director of Risk and play a key role in our location-neutral team, responsible for underwriting, risk management, and compliance functions. You will oversee these key functions, manage the Risk team, interpret payment card industry guidelines, craft policies and procedures, and assess and manage company risks. The ideal candidate possesses strong industry and market knowledge, experience collaborating with sales and support teams, and expertise in implementing and scaling risk management software. This position offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including a location-neutral work environment, flexible paid time off, and comprehensive health benefits. CardFlight is a fast-moving company committed to empowering small businesses and offers a supportive and collaborative work environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• At least ten (10) years of compliance and/or risk management experience in the merchant acquiring, payment facilitation and/or ISO environment
• Advanced knowledge of card brand, governmental, banking and other relevant payments industry regulations rules and regulations, including PayFac-specific program requirements
• Demonstrated ability to design, document, evaluate and improve upon underwriting and risk policies and procedures in a dynamic fast-paced environment
• Exceptional interpersonal skills and ability to effectively interact with a wide range of stakeholders across the company
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, delegate tasks to appropriate resources and maintain high-quality work product standards across your team
• Demonstrated people management skills and the ability to develop (and maintain) strong business relationships
• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal
• Superior organizational and time management skills as well as a strong attention to detail
• Sound judgment, strong problem solving and analytical skills
• Resourcefulness as well as a process- and results-orientation
• Ability to learn quickly and to work both independently and as part of a team toward the achievement of company goals
• Experience managing operational relationships with sponsor bank risk teams
• Risk management experience across a wide range of small business merchant industry verticals and payment types (card present and card not present)
• Experience working within a software and technology-driven company and culture

Responsibilities

• Create, maintain and update the policies and procedures for the compliance, underwriting and risk functions at the company
• Ensure policies, procedures and business processes are aligned with card brand, government and banking regulations as well as business objectives (e.g., revenue targets, customer experience expectations, company values, etc.)
• Manage, monitor, train and coach members of the compliance, underwriting and risk teams
• Design and implement management reporting to inform management of performance and risk levels of merchants and levels of adherence to compliance standards
• Create strong cross functional relationships with Sales and Customer Ops leaders in order to ensure there is a feedback loop/interface protocols in place that result in continuous improvement
• Oversee and participate in daily analysis of merchant activity, outgoing communications to merchants/partners as well as periodic portfolio analysis
• Shadow and coach the risk team, and act as the primary reviewer for high ticket merchant transactions
• Respond to recommendations from the risk team for holding and releasing funds as well as escalated items
• Oversee and participate in application review, data entry and underwriting of all files presented for approval
• Shadow and coach the underwriting team, and act as the primary underwriter for high volume / high risk merchant accounts
• Monitor changes in card brand, governmental, banking and other relevant payments industry regulations
• Recommend changes to existing risk management and underwriting policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the changing regulatory environment
• Review and ensure compliance standards are properly accounted for in the policies of other departments within the company
• Manage external compliance-related audits and third-party reviews
• Lead compliance training across the company and coach applicable managers/employees on how to perform their daily functions compliantly

Benefits

• Location-neutral work environment
• Home-office equipment stipend
• Flexible paid time off
• Employee Engagement (Lunch & Learns, team building events)
• Learning & Development culture
• Comprehensive health benefits
• Competitive compensation and company ownership/stock options