Merchant Underwriter

I'm currently partnering with a fast‑growing payments fintech that is hiring Merchant Underwriters. These roles will lead underwriting across both standard and high‑risk verticals, evaluating new merchant applications, reviewing financials and licenses, conducting ongoing portfolio and risk assessments, and investigating alerts such as chargeback spikes or ACH anomalies.

These positions hold independent decision‑making authority and handle complex or escalated cases. You'll also help shape underwriting policies as regulatory requirements evolve and work closely with Product, Compliance, Engineering, and Operations to build scalable, modern underwriting processes.

Key Responsibilities

• Evaluate new merchant applications for legal, regulatory, financial, and operational risk.
• Conduct credit reviews to determine financial stability and liability coverage capacity.
• Ensure merchant activities comply with internal risk policies and payment network rules.
• Perform periodic reviews of existing merchants, including updated financials, licenses, and legal documents.
• Identify and assess changes in merchant risk profiles.
• Investigate alerts such as chargeback spikes, return anomalies, or unusual transaction patterns.
• Develop and implement process improvements to streamline underwriting workflows.
• Support the adoption of new regulatory, regional, or payment‑scheme requirements.
• Define and recommend risk mitigations such as reserves, limits, or enhanced oversight.
• Prepare and present approvals, conditional approvals, or decline recommendations.
• Collaborate with compliance, operations, engineering, and product teams to build scalable underwriting solutions.

Required Skills:

• 2-4+ years of underwriting experience in fintech, payments, banking, or financial services.
• Strong understanding of merchant acquiring, payment processing, and transaction‑level risk.
• Experience evaluating higher‑risk verticals such as digital assets, remittance, or gaming.
• Consistent track record of accuracy, SLA compliance, and analytical decision‑making.
• Proficiency with spreadsheets and comfort analyzing large datasets.
• Strong communication skills and ability to operate in fast‑moving environments.

Preferred:

• Experience with transaction monitoring or case‑management platforms.
• SQL or BI tool familiarity (e.g., Looker, Tableau).
• Background in high‑growth or early‑stage payments organizations.
• Interest or experience in blockchain analytics or adjacent technologies.
• Bachelor's degree preferred.