Senior Director of Underwriting, Fraud Monitoring & Boarding
RemoteUnited States or Canada
Job Summary
Lead a team of underwriters and risk analysts to redesign boarding and underwriting workflows, implementing AI-first straight-through approval for clean files while maintaining rigorous controls for high-risk segments. Own daily execution of merchant risk monitoring, exception management, and portfolio surveillance, translating proprietary AR and invoice data into actionable underwriting inputs and exposure reporting. Partner with Product, Engineering, and Compliance to modernize the decisioning stack, integrate automated document review, and establish lending underwriting operating models for future embedded finance capabilities. Build and coach a high-performing team across risk analytics and operations, ensuring alignment with NACHA, BSA/AML, and sponsor bank requirements while driving measurable improvements in decision time and fraud mitigation.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of relevant experience in payments risk, merchant underwriting, boarding operations, credit risk, or financial services operations
- at least 3+ years leading teams or major operational workstreams
- Deep knowledge of merchant underwriting: KYB/KYC, beneficial ownership, financial statement review, exposure modelling, MCC/industry risk, chargeback economics
- Proven track record modernizing legacy boarding processes — implementing automated decisioning, vendor orchestration, and straight-through processing
- Hands-on familiarity with modern risk and verification vendors (KYB/KYC, fraud, bank data aggregators, accounting connectors, decision orchestration platforms)
- Working knowledge of card brand rules, NACHA, BSA/AML, OFAC, and sponsor bank operating requirements
- Experience operating in major card processor and sponsor bank environments
- Strong analytical chops — fluent in SQL, comfortable with portfolio data, can interrogate model outputs and challenge analyst conclusions
- Ability to use alternative data signals — such as AR/invoice data, payer behaviour, accounting-system data, or transaction flows — to improve underwriting, monitoring, or exception review processes
- Pragmatic approach to automation and AI — able to identify use cases that improve speed and accuracy while maintaining auditable decisions and appropriate human oversight
- Strong communication skills with the ability to explain underwriting decisions, operational tradeoffs, risk trends, and exceptions to senior stakeholders
Desired Qualifications
- Prior lending exposure preferred, particularly in small business lending, working capital, MCA, factoring, term loans, or embedded finance
- direct credit policy ownership
- Experience supporting the launch or operational scaling of a lending, credit, or embedded-finance product inside a payments, fintech, or B2B software company
- Familiarity with AI/ML risk decisioning platforms (e.g., Sift, Sardine, Feedzai, Zest, Taktile, Oscilar, Unit21, Sentilink) and LLM-based document review tooling
- Background in B2B / accounts receivable payments, embedded finance, or vertical SaaS
- Exposure to model risk management frameworks (SR 11-7 or equivalent)
- Experience navigating sponsor bank audits and regulatory exams
- Working understanding of lending economics, including credit facilities, covenants, advance rates, cost of capital, and how those inputs influence underwriting policy and pricing
- Experience operating across multiple jurisdictions, including U.S. and Canadian payments or lending requirements
- EU exposure
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