Director, Payments Enterprise Risk Management
PayPal's mission is to democratize financial services by enabling people and businesses to join and thrive in the global economy. Our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) team safeguards the payments ecosystem by proactively identifying, mitigating, and overseeing risks across operational resilience, fraud, credit, liquidity, and payment controls. As the Director, Payments Enterprise Risk Management, you will play a critical leadership role in overseeing risks tied to payment network operations, transaction flows, and financial exposures. You will design and drive an enterprise-wide risk strategy that ensures operational excellence, fraud prevention, regulatory compliance, and long-term resilience of PayPal's global payments ecosystem.
Essential Responsibilities :
- Establish overall business or technical strategy for risk management with significant impact on operations.
- Influence executive-level decision-making through strategic risk assessments and recommendations.
- Partner with stakeholders to implement strategies that reduce or transfer identified risks.
- Monitor and analyze risk exposure to ensure alignment with organizational objectives.
- Lead initiatives that contribute to long-term sustainability and resilience in the face of uncertainty.
Expected Qualifications :
Minimum of 15 years of relevant work experience and a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.Key Responsibilities :
Risk Strategy & Governance :
Design and execute PayPal's enterprise-wide payments risk strategy as part of the second line of defense across fraud, credit, liquidity, and operational risk.Establish frameworks for risk assessment, prioritization, and control design, aligning strategies across business functions and geographies.Lead operational risk committees and contribute to senior leadership forums, providing regular insights and recommendations to executives and the board.Holistic Payments Risk Oversight :
Oversee end-to-end risk assessments of payment operations, including reconciliation, ledger integrity, settlement, and exception management.Lead efforts to mitigate risks tied to network processing, infrastructure failures, payment fraud, anomalies, processing errors, and vendor exposures.Identify, monitor, and report key risk indicators (KRIs) and operational loss events; ensure effective remediation and prevention plans.Operational Resilience & Controls :
Develop and enhance operational controls to strengthen payment processing integrity, scalability, and fraud defenses.Oversee risk modeling initiatives to proactively identify vulnerabilities in transaction networks and implement practical responses.Lead incident management, including escalation, investigation, root cause analysis, containment, and remediation.Partner with business, technology, compliance, and governance teams to implement process enhancements that improve resilience.Partnership & Collaboration :
Build strong relationships with payment networks, regulators, financial institutions, and processing partners to strengthen trust and reduce ecosystem-wide risks.Partner with fraud, compliance, credit, liquidity, product, engineering, treasury, legal, and other teams to ensure comprehensive risk coverage.Provide strategic risk guidance on new payment products, projects, and technology deployments.Leadership & Culture :
Inspire and mentor diverse talent within risk and payments teams, fostering collaboration, innovation, and accountability.Act as a thought leader in advancing PayPal's capabilities in payments risk, operational resilience, fraud management, and governance.Minimum Qualifications :
Bachelor's degree in business, finance, or related field; advanced degree preferred.1215+ years of experience in payments, operational risk, fraud prevention, enterprise risk management, or financial regulation.In-depth expertise in payment systems, settlement processes, and risk frameworks (SOX, COSO, or equivalent).Proven track record of success in complex financial or fintech environments.Preferred Qualifications :
Experience with high-volume, high-value payment networks in a fintech, payments processor, or financial institution.Strong technical acumen for collaborating with engineering and risk teams on tools, models, and algorithms.Familiarity with global payment requirements, fraud trends, regulatory standards, and compliance practices.Exceptional leadership, communication, and executive influencing skills.Demonstrated ability to build cross-functional and external partnerships.