Director of Risk Operations

Koalafi•Arlington, VA

About The Position

At Koalafi, we believe in a world where no one has to put an important purchase on hold. That’s why we’re making it easier for more people to pay for big purchases over time. Retailers across the country rely on us to offer flexible lease-to-own financing to their non-prime consumers, while increasing sales and strengthening customer loyalty. Their 2M+ customers love us because we provide a flexible way for them to make payments and give them an opportunity to improve their credit. Our 200+ Koalafi teammates enjoy inspiring and challenging work that accelerates their careers. Interested in learning more about how we’re transforming the financing experience and joining our team? The Opportunity As Director of Risk Operations, you will own end-to-end operational fraud prevention and risk review across both our merchant and customer portfolios. You will lead a team of six Fraud Investigators, setting the direction, building the processes, and developing the capabilities that allow Koalafi to scale its fraud prevention function as the business grows. This is a hands-on leadership role at a company of ~220 people, meaning you will be both a strategic owner and an active contributor. You'll be expected to roll up your sleeves — diving into complex investigations, designing workflows, writing documentation, and coaching your team — while simultaneously thinking about how the function needs to evolve over the next 12-24 months. The right person for this role sees process excellence and technology adoption not as administrative overhead, but as the core levers for building a fraud operation that punches above its weight. You are genuinely excited about AI and actively experimenting with how it can be applied to fraud workflows — not as a future aspiration, but as something you are doing right now.

Requirements

6+ years of experience in fraud operations, fraud investigations, or risk management within a financial services or fintech environment
2+ years of people management experience, with a track record of developing individual contributors
Strong process improvement orientation — you find poorly documented, inconsistent workflows genuinely uncomfortable and are motivated to fix them
Excellent written communication skills; you write clear, structured documentation that others can easily follow
Sharp pattern recognition and investigative instincts — you can identify what's anomalous and pursue it methodically
Comfortable making and defending judgment calls in ambiguous situations with incomplete information
Data literate — you can work with Excel and basic reporting tools to monitor team performance and identify trends
Collaborative and low-ego; this is a small company and you'll need to work effectively across functions without a large support structure
Genuinely excited about AI and actively experimenting with how it applies to your domain — not waiting to be told, but exploring on your own
Orientation toward building scalable systems rather than heroic individual effort
Strong sense of ethics and confidentiality — you understand the sensitivity of the information this role handles
Comfortable having difficult conversations with merchants, internal stakeholders, and leadership
Motivated by catching fraud and building something that makes that easier over time

Nice To Haves

Direct experience with merchant fraud, point-of-sale financing, or B2B2C financial products strongly preferred
Familiarity with consumer regulatory requirements relevant to fraud and disputes (CFPB, FCRA, Reg E, UDAAP)
SQL familiarity is a plus

Responsibilities

Oversee the risk assessment and approval process for all new merchant partners during onboarding
Ensure the team is consistently applying sound underwriting judgment to evaluate merchant legitimacy, business quality, and fraud risk
Develop and maintain underwriting standards, decision frameworks, and documentation that create consistency and auditability across the team
Identify patterns in merchant approvals and denials that can inform policy improvements over time
Lead the ongoing monitoring and investigation of approved merchants exhibiting suspicious activity or abnormally poor account performance
Build and refine the triggers, workflows, and escalation paths that govern when and how merchants are reviewed
Own merchant disposition decisions — clear, escalate, restrict, or terminate — and ensure those decisions are well-documented and defensible
Collaborate with Sales and Account Management on difficult merchant situations requiring cross-functional coordination
Oversee the review of customer applications flagged at medium risk levels — cases that scored above automatic approval thresholds but below automatic decline thresholds
Ensure the team is applying consistent investigative standards using available tools including application data, internal systems, and third-party fraud prevention platforms
Continuously evaluate queue volumes, disposition rates, and outcomes to identify opportunities to sharpen automated decisioning and reduce manual review burden
Own the intake and resolution process for inbound fraud claims, disputes, and complaints submitted through escalation channels
Ensure timely, accurate, and compliant handling of all reactive cases in accordance with regulatory requirements and internal SLAs
Identify systemic patterns in reactive volume that signal upstream process gaps or emerging fraud typologies
Manage reviews triggered by suspicious activity at the account or customer level after funding has occurred
Develop and refine the signals and rules that trigger post-funding review
Collaborate with Fraud Analytics to ensure post-funding findings feed back into model development and strategy
Directly manage a team of six Fraud Investigators, providing day-to-day coaching, structured feedback, and clear performance expectations
Design, document, and continuously improve the workflows, decision frameworks, and standard operating procedures that govern every review type under your scope
Build and maintain a training program that onboards new investigators effectively and keeps the existing team sharp as fraud typologies and tools evolve
Establish a QA process to monitor decision consistency, catch errors, and create a feedback loop that raises the team's overall standard
Work closely with Fraud Analytics, Compliance, Sales, Operations, and Product to ensure Risk Operations is well-integrated into the broader business
Serve as the final escalation point for complex or high-stakes cases that require senior judgment
Actively experiment with AI tools (including large language models, automation platforms, and agentic workflows) to identify opportunities to improve investigator efficiency and decision quality
Lead the evaluation and adoption of new fraud prevention technologies and third-party tools
Work with Fraud Analytics and Engineering to scope and prioritize tooling investments that support the team
Bring a point of view on where AI can realistically augment or automate portions of the fraud review workflow — and be willing to build and test those ideas, not just propose them