Senior Payments Risk Manager
- Hiring from
- United States
- Work type
- Remote
- Posted
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Phoenix is the Autonomous Commerce Platform for DTC Founders. We unify storefronts, checkout, payments, and operations into one platform where AI agents handle the operational grind and merchants focus on growth.
We set out to build the "Shopify of Direct Response" and along the way recognized something bigger. Direct response is roughly a third of all ecommerce transactions, a trillion-dollar market chronically overlooked by Silicon Valley. The merchants who run it are obsessive about tooling.
They live and die by velocity, conversion, and margin. They have no brand moats. They only compete on operations, which is exactly what makes them ripe for agentic disruption and the earliest, fastest adopters of AI agents in commerce.
That insight reframed Phoenix from "the Shopify of DR" to the AI Agent Platform for DTC Founders.
This is a category-defining bet, and we are running at it from a position of strength.
Where We Are Today
8-figure ARR growing 100%+ YoY
Strong unit economics and efficient growth
Rapid merchant adoption and expanding market presence
Backed by experienced operators and investors with a history of building and scaling successful businesses
Why Now
This is a rare opportunity for a technical leader to step into a company with proven revenue, product-market fit, an established team, and a large market opportunity.
Three things make this an inflection point:
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Product-market fit is established. Demand continues to grow, merchant adoption is accelerating, and Phoenix is outperforming expectations.
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There is an opportunity to define a category. While many companies are building AI tools for commerce, few are focused on helping sophisticated DTC operators automate revenue-generating decisions at scale.
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Our customers are AI-ready. They adopt technology quickly when it drives measurable business outcomes, creating an ideal environment for agentic products.
The Role
We are hiring a Senior Payments Risk Manager to help own and scale risk management across Phoenix's growing portfolio of live merchants.
This is a hands-on, post-underwriting risk role focused on what happens after merchants begin processing. You will monitor merchant and transaction activity, identify emerging risks, investigate unusual patterns, and recommend appropriate action.
You'll dig into transaction data, merchant performance, fraud and chargeback trends, and other risk signals to identify issues before they become larger problems. You'll be expected to independently own investigations, follow the data, and come back with clear findings and recommendations to Payments leadership.
While this is a senior role, people management is not the primary focus. We're looking for someone who can operate hands-on, take ownership of complex risk issues, and provide guidance to other members of the team as needed.
Phoenix operates in a fast-moving, high-risk ecommerce environment where priorities can change quickly. This is not a traditional back-office role where every scenario is covered by an SOP. We're looking for someone who is analytical, highly curious, comfortable with ambiguity, and able to independently run with a problem.
What You'll Own
Live Merchant & Portfolio Monitoring
Proactively monitor Phoenix's portfolio of live merchants to identify emerging financial, fraud, operational, and compliance risks.
Analyze:
Transaction volume and velocity
Processing trends and anomalies
Chargeback and dispute activity
Fraud patterns
Refund activity
Merchant performance
Changes in processing behavior
Other indicators of elevated merchant risk
Identify unusual patterns early and determine when deeper investigation or intervention is warranted.
Risk Investigations
Own investigations into potentially concerning merchant or transaction activity.
Dig into transaction data, processing history, merchant behavior, and other available information to understand what is happening and why.
Independently take investigations from initial signal through resolution, documenting findings and providing clear, data-driven recommendations to Payments leadership.
Risk Mitigation & Escalation
Recommend appropriate actions based on investigation findings and the level of risk identified.
This may include:
Reserves or reserve adjustments
Funding holds
Processing limits
Enhanced monitoring
Fraud controls
Merchant remediation
Additional documentation or diligence
Escalation to processors, acquiring partners, or internal leadership
Balance merchant impact with Phoenix's financial, operational, and reputational risk.
Chargebacks & Fraud
Monitor portfolio-level and merchant-level chargeback and fraud trends.
Identify merchants or transaction patterns showing elevated risk and investigate root causes.
Partner with internal teams to develop appropriate mitigation strategies and help reduce preventable losses.
Risk Monitoring & Process Improvement
Help Phoenix move from reactive risk management toward increasingly proactive monitoring.
Identify opportunities to improve:
Risk alerts
Monitoring rules
Investigation workflows
Reporting and dashboards
Escalation processes
Risk tooling and automation
Partner with Payments leadership, Product, Engineering, and Operations to continuously improve how Phoenix identifies and manages merchant risk at scale.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Work closely with:
Payments leadership
Underwriting
Client Success
Product
Engineering
Operations
Compliance
Your primary responsibility is identifying and investigating risk. While direct merchant communication may occasionally be helpful, this is not primarily a client-facing role. You will provide other teams with the findings and recommendations they need to manage merchant communication and resolution.
What We're Looking For
Required
5+ years of experience across payments risk, merchant risk, transaction monitoring, fraud, merchant acquiring, or related payments functions
Experience monitoring live merchant portfolios and transaction activity
Strong investigative skills with the ability to identify unusual patterns, determine root causes, and recommend appropriate action
Experience analyzing transaction data, processing trends, chargebacks, disputes, fraud, and other merchant risk indicators
Strong understanding of merchant acquiring and the payments lifecycle
Experience working with risk controls such as reserves, funding holds, processing limits, enhanced monitoring, or merchant remediation
Ability to independently own investigations from initial signal through findings and recommendations
Strong analytical judgment and attention to detail
Ability to prioritize and shift quickly as new risks or merchant issues emerge
Comfortable operating with ambiguity rather than relying exclusively on established processes or SOPs
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
Preferred
Experience with high-risk ecommerce, DTC, subscription, nutraceutical, digital goods, or other elevated-risk merchant portfolios
Experience within a PayFac, processor, acquirer, ISO, payment gateway, or embedded payments platform
Experience managing a large portfolio of live merchants
Experience with chargeback monitoring and fraud investigations
Experience building or improving transaction-monitoring rules, alerts, dashboards, or investigation workflows
Experience using data and analytics tools to identify portfolio-level risk trends
Experience in a startup or high-growth payments environment
Experience mentoring or guiding junior risk analysts
Leadership Traits We Value
High ownership
Decisiveness
Strong recruiting and talent development capabilities
Accountability
Product judgment
Calm under pressure
Builder mentality
Culture
These are the values that guide how we operate:
All In to Win — Operate with urgency, intensity, and a relentless bar for excellence.
A Players Only — Only hire, develop, and keep A players. Protect talent density.
Merchant First — Merchants are why we exist. Every decision measured by merchant impact.
Entrepreneurial Spirit — Move like a Day One company. Fast, scrappy, hungry. Everyone owns.
Execution Over Ego — Best ideas win regardless of source. Status and titles do not matter.