Director of Fraud

Kafene

1d • $145,000 - $218,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Kafene is hiring a hands-on Senior Director of Fraud to build and own its fraud function end to end. The role will oversee intake, investigation, determination, response, and escalation across consumer, merchant, and payments fraud. The Director will corroborate signals, make formal determinations, and coordinate responses across Risk, Compliance & Legal, Collections, Merchant Support, Sales, Technology, and Finance.

The position combines direct casework with leadership of a General Fraud Investigator and the development of the function’s operating processes. The successful candidate will establish intake and case tracking, build an additional monitoring layer using operational data, maintain the merchant fraud playbook, and work with Technology on longer-term case management tools. The role is based in New York City with a hybrid arrangement, or remotely in the United States.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in fraud, including hands-on investigation experience.
• Experience in at least two of the following areas: consumer identity fraud, merchant fraud, and payments or chargeback fraud.
• A track record of getting other teams to act on findings without direct authority over them.
• Ability to write or read SQL, build a simple dashboard, and assess whether a data pattern is real.
• Sound judgment under ambiguity and clear, calm communication with executives, merchants, and outside counsel.
• Ability to distinguish suspected cases from confirmed cases of fraud and report them accurately.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building a fraud function or case management process from the ground up.
• Experience shaping fraud tooling and product flows with an engineering team.
• CFE certification.
• Familiarity with LexisNexis, CLEAR, Stripe Radar, Snowflake, and Sigma.
• Background in fraud leadership in lending, lease-to-own, BNPL, merchant acquiring, or SMB fintech.

Responsibilities

• Own the fraud lifecycle, including intake, routing, investigation, classification, response, and escalation across consumer, merchant, and payments cases.
• Decide routine cases when evidence is clear and present contested or ambiguous cases to the executive team with a recommendation.
• Lead responses to confirmed cases, including merchant communication, fund recovery, lease cancellation, credit reporting corrections, termination notices, and law enforcement referrals.
• Partner with Risk, which owns detection and the fraud scoring model, to deploy new rules and threshold changes when cases warrant them.
• Lead the General Fraud Investigator and establish intake and case-tracking processes.
• Build a second monitoring layer using operational data and shape longer-term case management tooling with Technology.
• Maintain the merchant fraud playbook and escalate confirmed cases that cross established thresholds within 24 hours.
• Report on fraud volume, time to resolution, recovery rate, and false-positive trends.

Benefits

• Equity package.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with the company covering 80% of costs, including coverage for spouses, children, and other dependents.
• 401(k) plan.
• Flexible paid time off starting from the first day of employment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed