Risk Operations Manager – Merchant Risk

As we continue to scale our payment and merchant ecosystem, we are looking for a Risk Operations Manager – Merchant Risk to strengthen our merchant risk management framework and ensure that merchants onboarded and transacting through our platforms remain within acceptable risk parameters. This is a hands-on role combining merchant underwriting, transaction risk management, fraud detection, portfolio monitoring and risk operations . Key Responsibilities 1. Merchant Risk Assessment & Underwriting • Lead risk assessment and underwriting of new merchants across different business models, industries, jurisdictions and payment products. • Review merchant KYB/KYC information, corporate structures, beneficial ownership, business activities, website/app presence, transaction flows and source of funds where applicable. • Assess merchant risk across factors including: • Business model and industry risk • Geographic and jurisdictional exposure • Transaction characteristics and expected volumes • Product/service risk • Fraud and chargeback exposure • Financial and operational risk • Regulatory and reputational risk • AML/CFT and sanctions-related risk indicators • Establish appropriate merchant risk ratings, transaction limits, reserves, velocity controls and other risk mitigation measures. • Escalate high-risk or unusual merchants to Risk/Compliance for enhanced due diligence or approval. 2. Ongoing Merchant Monitoring • Monitor the merchant portfolio to identify changes in business activity, transaction patterns and emerging risk indicators. • Conduct periodic and event-driven merchant reviews based on risk level and predefined triggers. • Identify unusual changes in: • Transaction volume • Average transaction size • Refund rates • Chargeback rates • Geographic distribution • Payment methods • Customer behaviour • Product/service mix • Investigate merchants whose actual transaction behaviour materially deviates from their approved business profile. • Recommend appropriate actions including enhanced monitoring, transaction restrictions, temporary suspension or termination. 3. Fraud & Transaction Risk Management • Develop and operate merchant-level transaction risk controls to detect potential fraud, abuse and suspicious activity. • Work with Risk Product / Engineering teams to develop and optimise transaction monitoring rules, risk thresholds and automated alerts. • Analyse transaction patterns and merchant behaviour to identify emerging fraud typologies. • Investigate suspicious transaction activity and determine appropriate operational actions. • Monitor fraud losses, chargebacks, refunds and other merchant-related risk metrics. • Identify opportunities to improve detection accuracy while minimising false positives and unnecessary friction for legitimate merchants. 4. Chargeback & Payment Risk • Monitor merchant chargeback, dispute, refund and fraud performance. • Identify merchants with deteriorating payment performance and proactively implement remediation measures. • Establish risk thresholds and escalation triggers for high-chargeback or high-refund merchants. • Work with Payments Operations, Finance and Commercial teams on merchant remediation and loss recovery. • Analyse root causes of payment disputes and recommend preventive measures. 5. Risk Operations & Case Management • Own day-to-day merchant risk investigations and ensure cases are reviewed and resolved within defined SLAs. • Establish clear investigation procedures, escalation matrices and decision-making frameworks. • Maintain complete and auditable documentation of merchant risk decisions. • Ensure consistent application of risk policies across merchant onboarding, monitoring and remediation. • Conduct quality assurance reviews to identify gaps in risk decisions and operational processes. • Support incident management and urgent merchant risk escalations. 6. Risk Policy, Controls & Process Improvement • Develop and continuously improve merchant risk policies, procedures and operational playbooks. • Define merchant risk segmentation and risk appetite criteria together with Risk and Compliance leadership. • Review existing controls and identify opportunities for automation and process optimisation. • Partner with Product, Engineering and Data teams to enhance merchant risk tooling and dashboards. • Support the development of automated merchant risk scoring and decisioning frameworks. • Conduct periodic reviews of risk rules to ensure they remain effective against evolving fraud and payment risk patterns. 7. Risk Analytics & Reporting • Develop and maintain merchant risk dashboards and management reporting. • Monitor key risk indicators including: • Merchant approval / rejection rates • High-risk merchant volumes • Fraud rates • Chargeback rates • Refund rates • Transaction decline rates • Risk alert volumes • Loss rates • Merchant concentration risk • Risk review turnaround time • Provide regular portfolio risk reporting and insights to senior management. • Identify emerging trends and recommend appropriate risk appetite or control adjustments. 8. Cross-Functional Stakeholder Management • Work closely with Compliance / AML, Payments Operations, Product, Engineering, Finance, Sales and Customer Support to manage merchant risk. • Partner with Commercial teams to balance business growth with appropriate risk controls. • Provide risk guidance during the launch of new merchant products, payment methods, markets and business models. • Act as a key risk escalation point for complex merchant cases. • Support internal audits, compliance reviews and regulatory examinations relating to merchant risk management. Requirements Experience • Bachelor's degree in Risk Management, Finance, Business, Economics, Accounting, Data Analytics or a related discipline . • 5–8 years of relevant experience in merchant risk, payment risk, fraud risk, transaction monitoring, acquiring,…