Director of Payments and Risk

Company Overview

Coinme is revolutionizing access to financial services by integrating blockchain technology with user-friendly solutions, making cryptocurrency broadly accessible. As the largest cryptocurrency kiosk network in the United States with over 40,000 locations, Coinme facilitates crypto adoption through its mobile app, digital wallet, and decentralized finance integrations. Beyond consumer products, Coinme offers an enterprise Crypto-as-a-Service platform, enabling businesses to rapidly deploy crypto capabilities via modular, API-driven infrastructure that covers KYC, payment processing, liquidity, and custody — all fully compliant and licensed.

Role Summary

The Director of Payments & Risk is tasked with safeguarding transactions, managing disputes defensibly, and sharpening fraud controls as Coinme expands across consumer and platform operations. This leadership position is a hands-on role responsible for defining and executing the fraud defense framework across multiple vendors, processors, and banking partners. The Director integrates AI-driven workflows, leads risk analysts and scientists, and ensures the fraud operations run efficiently, sustainably, and with strong evidence-based decision-making, reporting metrics that link risk management to profitability.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and oversee the comprehensive fraud strategy covering vendor engines, internal controls, processor gates, and partner bank requirements.
• Manage fraud detection systems including rule setting, threshold tuning, model adjustments, and velocity limits, balancing false positives against fraud capture, with rigorous change management and monitoring.
• Lead the chargeback and dispute processes, focusing on strategy, deflection signals, win-rates, recoveries, and card-network compliance.
• Conduct fraud investigations with an evidence-first approach, tracing decision trails, distinguishing system errors from valid controls, defending declines, and converting incidents into permanent fixes.
• Design and oversee AI-driven risk operations workflows ensuring quality assurance, human oversight where needed, auditable reasoning trails, and clear automation boundaries.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop a team of risk analysts and scientists, enabling them to effectively operate and improve AI-assisted systems supported by documentation and runbooks.
• Advocate for root cause resolutions for risk issues beyond the team’s immediate systems, collaborating closely with compliance and other departments.
• Manage vendor and partner relationships through both hands-on operational oversight and strategic commercial management, including SLAs and roadmap influence.
• Regularly report to senior leadership with actionable insights into risk reduction, performance metrics, detailed loss analysis, and profitability linkage.

Indicators of Success in First Year

• Maintain or improve fraud loss rates, chargeback ratios, and card network monitoring during transitions of responsibility.
• Exhibit strong, rapid decision-making capabilities in critical incidents.
• Establish AI-assisted risk operations as a documented and independently functioning product without single points of failure.
• Fully staff and train the team to close investigations efficiently with defensible rationale within service level agreements.
• Implement process improvements addressing identified gaps and maintain robust vendor and processor partnership engagements.
• Provide comprehensive executive reporting that quantifies how risk management activities impact profitability.

Required Qualifications

• Over 8 years experience in payments risk, fraud, or dispute operations, including at least 3 years in a leadership role, preferably within financial services or cryptocurrency exchanges.
• Deep knowledge of card rail processes, chargeback economics, dispute rules for Visa/Mastercard, ACH and real-time payment rails, and crypto risk related to wallets and on-chain activity.
• Extensive hands-on experience with modern fraud prevention platforms (e.g., Sardine, SEON, Sift, Kount, Forter) including crafting rules and testing their effectiveness.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and analytics tools to independently conduct data investigations and understand system logs.
• Proven leadership managing AI-enhanced operational workflows, including appropriate automation governance and human-in-the-loop strategies.
• Track record of creating institutional knowledge through documentation and cross-training to support team sustainability.
• Ability to influence and implement fixes across departments to address root causes of risk.
• Experienced in hiring, coaching, and retaining analysts while guiding teams through AI-driven transformations.
• Strong judgment emphasizing evidence-based decisions, defensible metrics, and clear communication with technical and executive audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with the Sardine platform or card processor integrations such as TabaPay.
• Experience utilizing threat-informed frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK or F3 in fraud defense.
• Knowledge of blockchain analytics tools (TRM Labs, Chainalysis, Elliptic) and wallet clustering investigation techniques.
• Understanding of BSA/AML regulations and SAR processes with compliance collaboration experience.
• Experience building with large language model agent frameworks or workflow automation platforms.
• Comfort with modern data stacks including dbt, data warehouse modeling, and product analytics.
• Relevant certifications such as CFE, CAMS, FRM or advanced degrees.

Work Culture and Approach

At Coinme, measurement precedes action, and success is recognized only after verification with an audit trail maintained for every change. Equal importance is given to protecting legitimate customers and preventing fraud. AI technology is integral to daily operations rather than a novelty, aligning with the company’s forward-thinking risk mindset.