Freelance Merchant Risk Analyst Jobs in California

About Airwallex
Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 200,000 businesses worldwide - including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more - with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.
Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,200 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$8 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you're ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.
Attributes We Value
We hire successful builders with founder-like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role-related expertise and sharp thinking, and you're motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.
You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you "get stuff done" end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you'll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let's build what's next.
About the team
The Operations team at Airwallex ensures the smooth and efficient functioning of our services and processes. We focus on optimizing workflows, improving operational efficiency, and delivering exceptional customer support. By streamlining operations and implementing best practices, we help drive the company's growth and maintain high service standards. Our team is dedicated to providing a seamless experience for our customers and supporting Airwallex's mission to empower businesses globally.
What you'll do
We are looking for a High-Agency Senior Analyst to join our Merchant Risk Operations team. This is not a traditional "reviewer" role; we are looking for a builder-operator. You will be responsible for the "grind"-the daily execution of complex merchant risk reviews-but you will use that experience to identify bottlenecks and build the systems, queries, and dashboards to eliminate them.
The ideal candidate is someone who doesn't wait for a manual to be written; they write the manual. You are technically self-sufficient, quantitatively rigorous, and possess a bias for action that allows you to unblock yourself and our Sales partners.
This role is based in San Francisco.
Responsibilities:

• High-Volume Execution: Own the end-to-end risk lifecycle for complex merchants. You will conduct holistic fraud and credit risk assessments, determine exposure methodologies, and manage daily case queues with high efficiency and precision.
• Quantitative Self-Sufficiency: You will write your own SQL queries to extract data, perform root-cause analysis on chargeback spikes, and identify emerging fraud trends.
• Build & Visualize: Design and maintain real-time risk dashboards (Looker, Tableau, etc.) to monitor portfolio health and provide visibility to stakeholders.
• Strategic Risk Partnership: Act as a consultative partner to the Commercial team and other key stakeholders. You don't just provide "yes/no" answers; you clearly communicate the "why" behind risk decisions. You are responsible for educating commercial stakeholders on specific merchant exposures, whether they be credit, fraud, or regulatory, and ensuring they understand the trade-offs and risks. Your mission is to protect the business by providing transparent, data-backed rationales that align growth with our risk appetite.
• Process Iteration: Systematically identify "toil" in our current workflows. You will proactively streamline onboarding programs and collaborate with Engineering to automate manual steps, turning insights from your daily case reviews into scalable policy changes.

Who you are

• High Agency: You have a "founder mindset." When you see a process gap or a data wall, you take it upon yourself to fix it or climb over it without being asked.
• A "Builder-Operator": You enjoy the "grind" of investigating complex cases because you know that's where the best insights for automation are found.
• Quantitatively Rigorous: You are a data-first thinker. You don't just report numbers; you understand the story they tell and the risks they hide.

Minimum qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience in Merchant Risk, Fraud, or Credit Risk within Fintech or Payments.
• Proficiency in SQL: You must be comfortable writing queries to join tables and extract insights independently.
• Technical Resourcefulness: Experience building data visualizations and dashboards (e.g., Looker, Tableau, Sigma).
• Risk Expertise: Strong understanding of credit risk evaluation methodologies, including industry verticals, business models, and financial statement analysis.
• Communication: Ability to clearly explain complex risk decisions and policies to both internal stakeholders and external customers.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience in a high-growth, fast-paced startup environment.
• Knowledge of payment acquiring products, card network rules, and local payment methods.
• Experience working with Engineering/Product teams to build internal risk tools.

Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters
To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com or our official LinkedIn page.
Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.
Equal opportunity
Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don't regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.