VP Merchant Risk Operations

Paysafe•Jacksonville, FL

About The Position

Paysafe is a global payments platform powering the experience economy, with a strong focus on the iGaming, video gaming, e-commerce, retail, travel and hospitality sectors. With 30 years of expertise in payment technology, Paysafe helps businesses and consumers lift every experience through seamless, secure payment solutions, including card payments, digital wallets such as Skrill, eCash solutions like PaysafeCard, and a suite of local payment methods. With approximately 2,900 employees across 12 countries and annualized transactional volume of $167 billion in 2025, Paysafe connects people and businesses worldwide through innovative digital payment experiences. The VP, Merchant Risk Operations is responsible for leading the operational delivery of Paysafe’s Merchant Risk function across the merchant lifecycle. The role is accountable for operational performance, service quality, capacity planning, operational controls, workforce capability and continuous improvement across underwriting, onboarding, merchant due diligence, portfolio monitoring and risk investigations. Working closely with Merchant Risk Strategy, Commercial, Product, Compliance, Fraud and Technology, the VP ensures operational execution aligns with risk appetite while delivering an efficient merchant experience. Paysafe operates in a dynamic payments environment where Merchant Risk Operations must be disciplined, scalable and commercially enabling. This role offers the opportunity to lead a business-critical global operations function at scale, ensuring execution is consistent, controlled and efficient across the merchant lifecycle. The successful candidate will bring a modern operations leadership perspective, with experience using data, workflow, automation, AI-enabled decision support and cross-functional partnership to improve speed, quality, productivity and merchant outcomes. They will be a credible and proven transformation leader who can balance operational delivery with strategic input, influence executive stakeholders and lead distributed teams through change with clarity and confidence.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in Merchant Risk Operations, Payments Operations, Acquiring Operations or Risk Operations within a global payments, fintech, financial services or digital commerce environment.
At least 3 years of experience managing large operational teams across multiple regions, including leaders of leaders and distributed organisations.
Experience owning operational KPIs, SLAs, quality, productivity, service delivery and backlog management in a scaled environment.
Experience improving operational efficiency through automation, workflow redesign, process optimisation and technology enablement.
Experience scaling operational functions during periods of growth, complexity or increased transaction volume.
Strong understanding of merchant underwriting, onboarding, KYC / KYB, due diligence, portfolio monitoring, merchant review, fraud escalation and operational controls.
Experience partnering with Merchant Risk Strategy, Commercial, Product, Compliance, Fraud and Technology to support responsible growth while maintaining appropriate risk controls.
Proven experience leading operational transformation through process optimisation, workflow redesign, automation, AI and technology to improve efficiency, quality and scalability.
Comfort operating at executive level, with the ability to translate complex operational and risk topics into clear, pragmatic business recommendations.

Responsibilities

Lead the global Merchant Risk Operations function, ensuring consistent operational delivery across underwriting, onboarding, merchant review, portfolio monitoring and risk investigations.
Deliver operational execution in line with established risk policies, governance frameworks and risk appetite.
Own operational performance across Merchant Risk Operations, including productivity, quality, SLAs, backlog management and service delivery.
Build scalable operating procedures, quality assurance frameworks and operational controls that support consistent decisioning and strong portfolio protection.
Lead workforce planning, organisational design and capacity management across global teams.
Drive continuous improvement through Lean, automation, workflow optimisation and AI-enabled decision support.
Develop operational KPIs and management reporting to improve efficiency, consistency and customer outcomes.
Act as senior operational escalation for complex merchant reviews and high-impact risk events, balancing commercial judgement with strong portfolio protection.
Partner with Technology to automate manual activities, improve straight-through processing and strengthen operational scalability.
Build and lead a high-performing global Merchant Risk Operations organisation, creating a culture of accountability, operational excellence, continuous improvement and customer focus.