Director of Underwriting, Funding, Risk & Collections

Job Summary

The Director, Underwriting, Funding, Risk & Collections provides strategic leadership over payments underwriting, portfolio risk, funding, collections, and related merchant risk operations for U.S. and Canadian merchants. This role sets the operating strategy, provides team leadership, manages vendor and acquiring bank relationships, supports escalation and portfolio‑level risk decisions, and protects the organization from financial and regulatory risk while enabling scalable growth.

A critical focus is modernizing the risk operations lifecycle through automation, AI‑enabled decision support, and scalable process design, with a goal of improving speed, consistency, decision quality, and operational capacity without materially increasing risk.

• Set strategic direction for underwriting, risk, funding, and collections operations, ensuring scalable, compliant, and consistent processes aligned with Pay Fac, AML, KYC, OFAC, card network, ACH, and acquiring bank requirements.
• Lead underwriting frameworks, decisioning criteria, and escalation paths for U.S. and Canadian merchant risk operations, with direct involvement reserved for complex or high‑risk decisions.
• Monitor portfolio performance and risk trends, identifying emerging risks and recommending portfolio‑level actions.
• Oversee automated high‑risk alert monitoring systems, criteria, and reporting to improve decision quality and reduce manual dependency.
• Lead the advancement of automation and AI‑enabled decision support across underwriting, risk monitoring, funding, collections, reporting, and exception management to improve speed, consistency, scalability, and risk control.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Operations, Legal, Compliance, Finance, Accounting, Support, and business units to improve systems, workflows, and cross‑functional alignment.
• Influence product and engineering roadmaps for underwriting, risk monitoring, funding, settlement, collections, and merchant account change capabilities.
• Provide strategic leadership for Agreement Express (AEX), World Pay, electronic check processing, internal reporting, and other risk, funding, and collections tools.
• Prepare and present risk, funding, and collections reporting to the CFO and other senior stakeholders.
• Ensure required Unusual Activity Reports (UARs) and related bank or compliance submissions are completed accurately and timely through appropriate team processes.
• Provide oversight of funding and settlement operations, including reliability, exception management, communication, and automation.
• Lead the collections function for software and payments accounts, including returned merchant funding and billing, through clear policies, workflows, escalation paths, and team accountability.
• Partner with Accounting and Finance to ensure collections activity, write‑off data, reconciliation, and financial reporting remain aligned.
• Manage relationships with acquiring bank risk teams, AML partners, auditors, underwriting and onboarding vendors, risk technology vendors, and third‑party collections agencies.
• Manage risk & compliance‑related audits with third parties (e.g., Worldpay, sponsor banks, card networks).
• Evaluate vendor performance, contracts, issue resolution, and scalability against business objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Lead, coach, and develop underwriters, risk/funding specialists, and collections specialists, building a scalable team structure with clear ownership and performance expectations.
• Evaluate and implement workflow improvements, vendor capabilities, and technology‑enabled processes that reduce manual review, improve prioritization, and increase operational capacity without weakening compliance or financial controls.
• Ensure automation and AI‑enabled processes are implemented with appropriate governance, auditability, escalation paths, and human oversight for complex or high‑risk decisions.

• Strategic underwriting, risk, merchant compliance, funding, collections, and portfolio management expertise.
• Strong knowledge of Pay Fac, AML, KYC, OFAC, card network, ACH, and acquiring bank requirements.
• Proven ability to implement…