Cardless | Head of Fraud | san francisco, ca

Company Overview

At Cardless, we’re building a credit card and loyalty platform that consumer businesses use to engage their customers. We’ve launched 9 credit cards, including for the largest mall operator in the U.S. and the largest airline in South America. We help businesses bring imaginative card programs to life and pioneered technology to embed native credit card features into their products.

We value curiosity, humility, and intensity — we move fast and take ownership. This is a place where a motivated, resourceful individual can enormously impact our trajectory. We're headquartered in San Francisco and have raised about $60M in equity funding from top venture capital firms and angels.

The Role

Managing fraud risk is core to what we do at Cardless, and as Head of Fraud you will be responsible for overseeing our fraud systems.

There are a few key "jobs to be done" for this role:

• (1) Fraud Prevention: Customer Onboarding
• You’ll lead the development and implementation of fraud detection strategies during the customer onboarding process. This includes working with identity verification vendors, credit bureau integrations, and risk engines to ensure fraudulent application activity is caught early. You'll oversee how fraud tools and models are deployed and enhanced over time, working cross-functionally with product, engineering, compliance, and data science teams to build robust fraud prevention methods that protect against both identity fraud and synthetic identity attacks.
• (2) Fraud Prevention: Transaction Monitoring
• You'll be in charge of the systems responsible for monitoring real-time credit card transactions, ensuring a balance between fraud prevention and customer convenience. You'll lead efforts to fine-tune fraud detection algorithms, reduce false positives, and improve the customer experience in cases where accounts are flagged or cards are declined. Your role will involve collaborating with customer support to resolve disputes quickly while maintaining strong risk controls, leveraging insights from industry trends and machine learning techniques to stay ahead of emerging fraud threats.
• (3) Ongoing Portfolio Monitoring
• Continuously monitor and analyze transaction data to spot emerging fraud patterns and ensure the overall health of the platform and credit portfolio. You'll adjust fraud policies and controls as needed to mitigate risks while maintaining a high approval rate for legitimate transactions. Regular portfolio reviews, combined with real-time analytics, will allow you to proactively address risks and adjust fraud thresholds to safeguard the company’s assets while maintaining customer trust.
• (4) Vendor and partner Management
• Work closely with external fraud prevention vendors, issuing banks, and payment processors to strengthen fraud defense mechanisms. As the lead on fraud risk management, you'll present fraud trends and prevention strategies in regular meetings with these partners, ensuring that they align with both regulatory requirements and internal business needs. This includes optimizing the use of third-party fraud tools, exploring new fraud prevention technologies, and ensuring compliance with KYC/AML regulations.

The Requirements

• 6+ years of experience in fraud operations within the fintech or payments industry, with specific experience managing fraud in lending and credit or debit card companies
• An ability to switch from 30,000 feet to 100 feet in a single day - you'll be overseeing our overall fraud strategy, but shouldn't be afraid to get your hands dirty and review sticky cases yourself.
• Proven track record of developing and managing fraud detection strategies, including customer onboarding and transaction monitoring
• Technical and quantitative skills (e.g., experience working with data tools, machine learning, or SQL-based analytics to support fraud detection and prevention)
• Strong communication skills — ability to communicate technical fraud concepts to non-technical stakeholders (e.g., Operations, Legal, Compliance, and leadership teams).
• Experience working at a technology company, and the collaboration with engineering and product that comes with it

Location

We're headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a beautiful office in the Mission District (near Dolores Park). We welcome employees who want to work from this office; we offer additional benefits to those who do (see below), and relocation assistance to those who'd like to.

We regularly bring our team together for offsites & trips, about every 2 months, both for fun and for work. We cover all travel & lodging in these cases.

A condition of employment at Cardless is being fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 before beginning your employment. We’ll ask you to send us a copy of your vaccination card in advance of your first day.

Benefits & Perks

For all employees, we offer:

• 💸 Highly competitive salaries, significant equity, and a 401(k) plan
• 🏥 Top-of-the-line healthcare (medical, vision, and dental), with 100% primary coverage and 75% dependent coverage for medical
• 🌴 Unlimited paid time off, with a minimum of 15 days off per year
• 👶 Parental leave for birthing and non-birthing parents

For in-office employees:

• 🍱 Catered lunch at the office every day, plus plenty of snacks & drinks
• 🚎 $250/month commuter assistance for public transit or our parking garage

Our Values

We believe that the best companies are the ones that successfully align their vision and values, that match their decision-making processes, hiring criteria, and overall operating principles to the change they’re striving to make. We're willing to spend significant time and resources to be above average at the following things because we believe that will lead to long-term success.

- Be curious and be the solution. We work in a complex space. To be successful, we must think globally and collaborate cross-functionally. We ask thoughtful questions without judgment and propose comprehensive solutions that address the full picture. We are all owners at Cardless — mindful and empowered.

- Start with the customer. Our customers are our priority. Our care for them drives our actions. The first question we always ask is: how will this impact the customer? We make every decision, no matter how big or small, with the customer top of our minds.

- Move fast and build things. We are a startup in a highly regulated space, so we must execute with both speed and precision. We achieve this through deliberate focus, methodical preparation, and disciplined execution. We build, learn, improve, and repeat.

- A place to do your best work. We are a team, and we achieve more together than apart. At Cardless, we want to see each other succeed: we take as much pride in each other’s work as our own. We celebrate and seek out diversity of experience, thought, and background to accelerate both individual and company growth. We're hungry, we're passionate, and we’re inspired to achieve great things together.

Cardless employees are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 and to provide proof of vaccination before their first day. Cardless is an equal opportunity employer, and we value a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate based on race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.