Head of User Risk Strategy
Stripe · San Francisco, CA · 1 wk ago
On-siteFinance$184k–$276k/yrFull-time
Responsibilities
- Own the long-term vision and strategy for Stripe's User Risk / Supportability function, ensuring legitimate users can use Stripe while protecting Stripe's financial platform, brand, and regulatory standing.
- Translate Stripe's business objectives and risk appetite into a cohesive, multi-year supportability strategy that balances risk exposure with user experience.
- Define the risk/reward framework for new industry enablement and new product enablement — setting the standard for how Stripe evaluates and expands access responsibly.
- Develop and execute a clear roadmap across the URS organization that is aligned to Stripe's SOKRs and articulated to senior leadership.
Ecosystem Strategy
- Own Stripe's global Terms of Service standards — the Supportability Handling Guide — including restricted and prohibited business categories.
- Set the strategic direction for how Stripe's supportability ecosystem evolves as Stripe's product footprint and geographic reach expand.
- Be the final decision-maker on policy changes that carry meaningful risk exposure or require cross-functional alignment, and represent Risk's position with Legal, FinCRO, card networks, and external partners.
- Integrate financial partner Restricted/Prohibited Business Lists (RBL/PBL) into Stripe's policy framework.
New Product Enablement
- Lead the strategy and approval process for new product enablement — developing the appropriate RBL/PBL strategy for new products and incorporating new bank partner requirements.
- Ensure that risk standards are embedded early in the product development lifecycle, partnering with Product and Engineering to shape how supportability is implemented in new Stripe products.
- Work with Legal and Financial Partnerships to assess and integrate compliance obligations introduced by new products and banking relationships.
User Insights & Enablement
- Lead the strategy for new industry enablement — evaluating emerging and underserved industries for supportability, and developing the frameworks that allow Stripe to access these markets responsibly.
- Own the Large User Advisory function, providing structured, high-quality guidance on complex user-specific supportability questions — enabling GTM and Partnerships to unlock revenue while managing risk appropriately.
- Develop scalable frameworks for advisory decisions so the function can handle growing volume without compromising quality.
Platform Risk Strategy
- Lead Platform Risk Strategy, which covers large user requests, health monitoring, and education for Stripe's largest and most complex users.
- Develop scalable approaches to managing the supportability risk profile of Stripe's largest platforms and complex use cases, providing clear guidance and risk frameworks to internal stakeholders.
- Drive education and self-service capabilities so that internal teams and users can navigate Stripe's supportability standards more independently.
Enforcement & Monitoring Strategy (EMS)
- Provide strategic direction to the EMS team, which is responsible for integrating Stripe's supportability standards into detection and enforcement systems.
- Ensure that URS standards are operable, enforceable, and continuously tuned based on performance data and insights.
- Partner with Engineering, Product, and Data Science to develop data-driven detection strategies, improve enforcement precision, and reduce false positives that create unnecessary user friction.
- Maintain global EMS coverage, including regional strategy across North America and EMEA/APAC.
People & Organizational Leadership
- Lead and develop a team across five sub-teams, including multiple team-level managers (M0/M1) and senior individual contributors.
- Build a team culture grounded in Stripe's Operating Principles — one that is analytically rigorous, user-centric, and collaborative.
- Coach and develop your direct reports to grow in both their functional craft and their leadership capabilities.
- Build succession depth and develop a clear talent strategy for the function.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Act as the senior Risk Strategy voice in cross-functional risk forums, product reviews, and partner negotiations relevant to supportability.
- Partner with Product and Engineering on the Supportability platform, influencing the roadmap to ensure our systems accurately reflect policy intent and scale effectively.
- Work with GTM and Partnerships to develop scalable access to supportability information, reducing friction in the sales cycle while maintaining risk discipline.
- Engage with Legal and Financial Partnerships on policy positions, regulatory changes, and external partner requirements.
- Represent URS at senior Risk leadership reviews and provide clear, data-backed narrative on the state of the supportability ecosystem.
- Drive cross-functional programs with impacts across Risk and the broader organization — including Third Party Agent (TPA) programs, Actor-Level Enforcement, and strategic GTM/URS collaboration initiatives — ensuring clear goals, DRIs, and measurable outcomes.