Onboarding Risk Manager

About Paddle: Paddle is a premier, internationally recognized FinTech pioneer, payment infrastructure innovator, and global revenue execution leader on an absolute mission to completely transform how digital product companies scale their billing layers. Operating natively as a Merchant of Record (MoR) for over 6,000 software sellers across 245 territories globally, Paddle takes away 100% of the pain of payment fragmentation, local tax compliance, and multi-currency payouts. Backed by elite venture investors including KKR, FTV Capital, Kindred, Notion, and 83North, Paddle couples high-velocity commercial scale with a transparent, collaborative culture. The organization provides high-agency risk leaders with an uncompromised digital-first canvas to direct global compliance queues, integrate artificial intelligence into modern fraud workflows, and secure global payment lanes safely worldwide.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly analytical, systems-minded Onboarding Risk Manager to join our core centralized Risk & Compliance division in a full-time remote capacity across the United Kingdom (or within a +/- 1 GMT timezone tier). Reporting directly to the Head of Risk & Compliance, you will step up to claim individual strategic and operational accountability for leading our distributed Onboarding Risk function, which serves as our first line of defense for identifying fraud and payment-related exposures. Shifting completely away from routine administrative checklist screening, you will direct an elite, multi-regional team of analysts and leads spanning North America, UK/EU, and APAC. This position requires a fintech underwriting veteran with 4+ years of core risk history who structures complex compliance pipelines fluidly, handles high-stakes merchant escalations with incomplete data smoothly, and optimizes automated verification logic confidently.

Key Responsibilities

• Global Function Line Management: Lead, coach, and structurally develop a distributed team of Onboarding Risk analysts and regional team leads across NA, UK/EU, and APAC, aligning priorities and coverage maps natively utilizing Recruiter-level talent development frameworks.
• End-to-End Onboarding Governance: Act as the primary subject-matter expert for comprehensive merchant onboarding loops, enforcing absolute quality control across KYB, KYC, PEP/Sanctions screening, and final profile evaluations natively leveraging Legal Consultant compliance parameters.
• High-Risk Escalations and Triage: Take direct ownership of complex or high-risk merchant applications, making sound judgment calls under uncertainty, documenting well-reasoned decisions, and translating risk mechanics into customer-appropriate narratives.
• Risk Procedure and Playbook Maintenance: Document, update, and continuously improve internal onboarding risk processes, financial controls, and risk assessment playbooks to maintain exceptional compliance standards.
• Cross-Functional Workflow Alignment: Partner peer-to-peer with leadership cells across Sales, Customer Support, Operations, and Core Engineering to ensure onboarding paths deliver both strong risk containment and an excellent seller customer experience.
• KPI and Metric Architecture: Evolve, track, and monitor the internal KPI structures in strict collaboration with the Head of Risk & Compliance, ensuring high throughput and decision consistency across active risk queues.
• Payment Regulatory Tracking: Maintain deep, practical familiarity with evolving Card Scheme rules (Visa/Mastercard regulations) and international merchant acquiring legislation, embedding requirements into daily automated workflows.
• AI-Forward Operational Execution: Embrace and champion the active integration of Artificial Intelligence tools into everyday risk analysis workflows to accelerate data parsing and fraud trend identification.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 4+ years of verified professional history running advanced merchant onboarding risk analysis, credit risk underwriting, e-commerce fraud mitigation, or compliance management within a regulated FinTech hub.
• Deep, authoritative technical command of global payment processing frameworks, card network rule books, and international AML/CFT compliance mandates.
• Expert-tier background managing merchant portfolio exposure, reviewing processing statements, and configuring risk assessment matrices natively utilizing Legal Consultant frameworks.
• Documented Leadership Footprint: 3+ years of direct line management experience coaching technical analyst pods, setting performance milestones, and operating seamlessly across distributed time zones.
• 2+ years of commercial exposure working directly inside merchant acquiring, payment gateway solutions, or vertical digital commerce marketplaces.
• Outstanding verbal, written, and cross-functional communication attributes in fluent English, enabling uncompromised clarity when delivering risk presentations before executive stakeholders.
• Location Context and Availability: Position open to qualified risk executives based permanently and resident within the **United Kingdom** (or regions within a close +/- 1 GMT variance) to operate under a 100% remote digital-first framework.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior commercial compliance history operating explicitly within an enterprise B2B SaaS gateway, digital subscription marketplace, or global cross-border remittance engine.
• Direct hands-on experience re-architecting ticketing queues or building custom risk tracking routing modules within modern CRMs or issue managers.
• An outcome-driven personal philosophy rooted in a positive, solutions-oriented mindset, a comfort with fast-paced uncertainty, and an intense passion for identifying "a better way" to optimize operational backlogs.

What We Offer

• Experience-Calibrated United Kingdom Remuneration: A highly competitive full-time baseline salary package tailored precisely to evaluate your credit underwriting authority, multi-regional leadership background, and FinTech risk craft.
• The exceptional professional canvas to directly direct, shape, and engineer the compliance playbooks and fraud mitigation pipelines power-routing onboarding security for a world-class payment platform.
• Profound work-from-home remote parameters offering an elite **Digital-First** arrangement, complete scheduling trust, and zero physical geographic office commuting friction out of any city in the UK.
• Immediate baseline access to premium personal lifestyle perks, providing generous annual holiday leave structures and 4 months of fully paid family leave regardless of gender.
• Continuous skill acceleration pathways, including an annual personal learning fund and regular internal/external technical training modules to support your lifelong learning.