Director of Fraud Prevention

Summary

The Director of Fraud Prevention owns the fraud prevention, detection, and enforcement program across the full trader lifecycle, with direct accountability for payout integrity and chargeback/dispute exposure. This is a senior operating leadership role that requires decisive execution in a predominantly manual environment, clear ownership of outcomes, and executive-ready reporting.

This role establishes baseline reporting across fraud, payouts, and chargebacks, and continuously improves the operating cadence, controls, and decision frameworks as the business scales.

Key Responsibilities

1. Fraud Strategy, Policy & Governance

• Own the end-to-end fraud strategy across onboarding, trading activity, payments, and payouts.
• Define and maintain fraud and abuse policies, thresholds, and enforcement standards aligned to Topstep’s trader model.
• Establish clear decision frameworks and escalation criteria for high-risk cases and exceptions.
• Continuously assess emerging fraud patterns and platform vulnerabilities and translate insights into implemented controls.

2. Fraud Operations & Enforcement

• Lead daily fraud operations including monitoring, investigations, escalations, and enforcement actions.
• Design and maintain scalable manual workflows for review, approval, and enforcement that are consistently applied.
• Ensure fraud workflows are auditable with documented rationale for high-risk or exception decisions.
• Identify process gaps and operational inefficiencies and own resolution with clear timelines and measurable outcomes.

3. Payout Integrity & Payout Fraud Enforcement

• Own fraud controls related to trader payouts, including identity verification, account integrity checks, behavioral analysis, and policy enforcement prior to payout execution.
• Define and maintain payout hold/release/clawback criteria, including secondary review and approval requirements for high-risk cases.
• Serve as the senior decision-maker for complex or reputationally sensitive payout fraud cases.
• Ensure payout decisions are timely, evidence-based, and consistently documented.

4. Chargeback & Dispute Operations

• Own end-to-end chargeback and dispute operations, including intake, triage, representment strategy, evidence standards, and deadline management.
• Establish clear criteria for when Topstep disputes vs. accepts a chargeback, with consistent application across the team.
• Own chargeback reason-code discipline and technical dispute handling, including root-cause identification and corrective actions.
• Build and maintain dispute processing training, QA, and coaching for onshore and offshore teams to ensure consistent, defensible outcomes.

5. Payment Processing Controls & Network / Processor Management

• Own payment processing control requirements and execution across processors/acquirers, including configuration, monitoring, and operational controls (e.g., gateway/processor capabilities).
• Establish monitoring for chargeback thresholds and network programs, and take proactive action to prevent breaches or penalties.
• Partner with Engineering to implement and maintain upstream controls that reduce downstream disputes and payout abuse.
• Ensure clear ownership, timelines, and follow-through on payment processing initiatives and control improvements.

6. Reporting, Analytics, & Tooling

• Establish baseline reporting across fraud operations, payouts, and chargebacks with clear definitions, sources of truth, and cadence.
• Deliver executive-ready summaries that answer the question asked with clear outcomes and numbers (not raw google sheet exports).
• Own data quality for fraud/chargeback reporting and drive improvements to reduce reliance on ad hoc spreadsheets and manual reconciliation.
• Partner with Data and Engineering on tooling improvements that measurably improve speed, consistency, and auditability of fraud decisions.

7. Cross Functional Leadership

• Present fraud, payout integrity, and chargeback trends and recommendations to executive leadership in concise, decision-oriented formats.
• Influence upstream product and policy decisions to mitigate fraud and abuse while protecting legitimate trader experience.

8. Team Leadership & Development

• Build, lead, and develop the fraud and dispute operations organization including managers and analysts.
• Set clear roles, standards, and performance expectations; ensure appropriate coverage and decision authority across the team.
• Own training and coaching programs (with emphasis on dispute/chargeback processing and enforcement consistency).
• Lead by doing: demonstrate hands-on ownership during incidents, escalations, and high-risk decision cycles.

Required Qualifications and Key Competencies

• 8–12+ years of experience in fraud, payments, disputes/chargebacks, risk, or trust & safety roles.
• Demonstrated leadership experience managing fraud operations and dispute workflows.
• Strong understanding of payments fraud, account abuse, transaction risk, and dispute/chargeback processes.
• Experience operating in high-volume or regulated environments, with strong comfort in manual operational execution.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to deliver clear, executive-ready reporting and recommendations.

Preferred Skills

• Experience in fintech, trading, brokerage, or financial services environments.
• Familiarity with fraud vendors, rules engines, scoring models, and dispute management tooling.
• Experience partnering with processors, card networks, or regulators.

Company Culture & Perks

• Topstep is an engaging working environment which ranges from fully remote to hybrid. We foster a culture of collaboration with cameras on during meetings and a robust Slack environment for communication.
• Seven Company-paid Holidays and generous Family Leave. Paid time off is front-loaded.
• Competitive 401(k) matching, health, dental, and vision insurance is offered for full time employees.
• Vacations are encouraged with a bonus for taking 5 consecutive days. Employee referrals are bonused. Topstep offers a food and groceries budget and contributes towards health and wellness.

New Hire Base Salary Range

• $150,000-$180,000.
• Bonus: This position is eligible for a performance-based bonus as provided by the plan terms and governing documents.
• The compensation offered will take into account internal compensation structure and may vary depending on the candidate's geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Topstep is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all employees and applicants are valued. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status, in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Interested in the role? Apply today with your resume and cover letter!

At this time immigration sponsorship is not available for this position (including H-1B, STEM OPT training plans, etc.).