Director of Fraud Operations

<div class="content-intro"><p>At Koalafi, we believe in a world where no one has to put an important purchase on hold. That’s why we’re making it easier for more people to pay for big purchases over time.</p> <p>Retailers across the country rely on us to offer flexible lease-to-own financing to their non-prime consumers, while increasing sales and strengthening customer loyalty. Their 2M+ customers love us because we provide a flexible way for them to make payments and give them an opportunity to improve their credit. Our 200+ Koalafi teammates enjoy inspiring and challenging work that accelerates their careers.</p> <p>Interested in learning more about how we’re transforming the financing experience and joining our team?</p></div><p><strong>The Opportunity</strong></p> <p>As Director of Fraud Operations, you will own end-to-end operational fraud prevention and risk review across both our merchant and customer portfolios. You will lead a team of six Fraud Investigators, setting the direction, building the processes, and developing the capabilities that allow Koalafi to scale its fraud prevention function as the business grows.</p> <p>This is a hands-on leadership role at a company of ~220 people, meaning you will be both a strategic owner and an active contributor. You'll be expected to roll up your sleeves — diving into complex investigations, designing workflows, writing documentation, and coaching your team — while simultaneously thinking about how the function needs to evolve over the next 12-24 months.</p> <p>The right person for this role sees process excellence and technology adoption not as administrative overhead, but as the core levers for building a fraud operation that punches above its weight. You are genuinely excited about AI and actively experimenting with how it can be applied to fraud workflows — not as a future aspiration, but as something you are doing right now.</p> <p><strong>What You’ll Own</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Merchant Underwriting</em></strong></p> <ul> <li>Oversee the risk assessment and approval process for all new merchant partners during onboarding</li> <li>Ensure the team is consistently applying sound underwriting judgment to evaluate merchant legitimacy, business quality, and fraud risk</li> <li>Develop and maintain underwriting standards, decision frameworks, and documentation that create consistency and auditability across the team</li> <li>Identify patterns in merchant approvals and denials that can inform policy improvements over time</li> </ul> <p><strong><em>Merchant Fraud Reviews</em></strong></p> <ul> <li>Lead the ongoing monitoring and investigation of approved merchants exhibiting suspicious activity or abnormally