Head of Risk

About the role

The Head of Risk will lead the Risk Department of a regulated payments business that focuses on merchant acquiring and cross‑border payment flows. You will shape the enterprise and merchant risk framework, support sustainable growth and protect the company from financial, operational, ICT, cyber, outsourcing and merchant‑related risks during its licensing phase.

Key responsibilities

• Lead, develop and supervise risk analysts and monitoring specialists.
• Define and maintain the risk framework, risk appetite, merchant risk policies and decision‑making standards.
• Assess and approve new merchants, especially those in higher‑risk industries and cross‑border markets.
• Decide on onboarding, restrictions, reserves, exposure limits, enhanced monitoring and termination of merchant relationships.
• Monitor fraud, chargebacks, operational losses, portfolio performance and emerging threats.
• Set and oversee rolling reserves, security deposits and other financial risk mitigation measures.
• Conduct enterprise‑wide risk assessments covering operational, financial, liquidity, ICT, cyber, outsourcing, legal, reputational and merchant risk.
• Review major incidents, establish root causes and drive remediation.
• Oversee third‑party, outsourcing, ICT, cyber and DORA‑related risk assessments.
• Maintain compliance with Visa, Mastercard, PCI DSS and relevant scheme monitoring programmes, working closely with Compliance, AML, Operations, Finance, Sales and IT.

Required profile

• Higher education in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Risk Management or a related discipline.
• Minimum 7 years of experience in banking, merchant acquiring, payments, FinTech or risk management.
• At least 3 years of leadership experience within a risk, underwriting, fraud or monitoring function.
• Strong knowledge of acquiring, merchant underwriting, fraud prevention and chargeback management.
• Practical understanding of Visa and Mastercard requirements and higher‑risk merchant categories.
• Experience assessing international merchants and cross‑border payment flows.
• Experience working with regulators, payment schemes, acquirers or other regulated stakeholders.
• Fluent English and sound judgement for well‑supported decisions.

Required skills

• Visa and Mastercard compliance
• PCI DSS knowledge
• Enterprise risk assessment
• Fraud monitoring and chargeback management