Payments Operations & Fraud Analyst

About the role

Blackbird Labs is a loyalty and payments platform establishing meaningful connections between the world's best restaurants and their customers. The Senior Payments Operations & Fraud Analyst is the first dedicated owner of payments operations and fraud at Blackbird, owning end-to-end visibility into how money moves across consumer payments, payouts, and $FLY rewards. You will define our risk management strategy and operations while building our ops and fraud tooling from the ground up alongside engineering. This role requires a bias toward systematic fixes over one-off heroics as you establish operations as the first responder for payment and risk issues. You will lead investigation and analysis of emerging risk areas and partner with Operations and Product to ship durable solutions that keep the platform trusted.

Key facts

What you'll do

Ensure money moves reliably across every flow by developing the monitoring and alerting protocols that enable scalable business operations.

Lead triage and resolution of consumer and restaurant payment issues, establishing clear SLAs by category and maintaining a high bar for response quality.

Define and own all operational payment workflows for customers and partners to create a consistent and reliable experience.

Own the strategy and implementation of how Blackbird manages and addresses risk exposure across the business at every stage.

Lead investigation and analysis of emerging risk areas, collaborating closely with Operations and Product to ship durable solutions.

Define, build, and operate a scalable account integrity program that protects customers and preserves trust in the platform.

Partner with engineering to build our risk management platform and evaluate third-party platforms as we scale with the business.

Build a feedback loop from operations into product and engineering so that repeat issues become scalable fixes rather than recurring fires.

Establish operations as the first responder for payment and risk issues and develop clear standardized procedures for complex issues.

Deeply understand dispute and chargeback lifecycles, ACH return codes, and fraud typologies to inform better decisions.

Utilize SQL fluency to pull your own data and bring evidence to every recommendation you present to stakeholders.

Communicate with clarity and conciseness, summarizing complex incidents into three sentences for an executive audience without losing critical context.

Maintain high ownership by driving systematic fixes that prevent issues from reoccurring instead of relying on one-off heroics.

Leverage exposure to restaurant payments, hospitality tech, or two-sided marketplaces to identify nuances specific to Blackbird's customers.

Requirements

4-7 years in payments operations, fraud operations, or risk analytics at a fintech, payments company, or marketplace.

Deep familiarity with dispute and chargeback lifecycles, ACH return codes, and fraud typologies is essential for success in this role.

SQL fluency is required; you must pull your own data and bring evidence to every recommendation you make.

Clear, concise written communication is mandatory; you must be able to summarize an incident in three sentences for an exec audience.

A high ownership mindset and a bias toward systematic fixes over one-off heroics are non-negotiable expectations.

Strong judgment and discretion when handling sensitive payment data and investigations are required at all times.

The ability to translate complex operational issues into clear processes and documentation is critical for team scalability.

Comfort working cross-functionally with engineering, product, and operations stakeholders to align on strategy and execution.

Nice to have

Experience standing up a payments ops or fraud function from scratch is highly valued and reflects the entrepreneurial spirit needed here.

Exposure to restaurant payments, hospitality tech, or two-sided marketplaces provides context that accelerates impact.

Working knowledge of Nacha rules and return rate thresholds will help you manage flows efficiently.

Familiarity with processor dashboards (Stripe, Adyen, or similar) and payout infrastructure (Bill.com) will shorten the ramp time for owning critical flows.

Practical notes

Full time offers from Blackbird may also include stock options, benefits (including medical, dental, vision, flexible time off, 401(k)), and some not-so-standard, extra-fun perks, subject to applicable taxes and based on eligibility.

Blackbird Labs is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by applicable law. Blackbird will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. For US applicants, you may view the Know Your Rights notice here https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights_10_20.pdf. Additionally, Blackbird participates in the E-Verify program https://static.aa