Director of Engineering - Anti-Fraud Systems at xsolla

ABOUT YOU   We are seeking a Director of Engineering, Anti-Fraud Systems (AFS) to lead 1–2 engineering teams responsible for building and evolving Xsolla’s fraud prevention, risk decisioning, and payment protection systems.   This role requires deep fintech and payments domain expertise, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to operate at both strategic and tactical levels. You will oversee mission-critical systems that directly impact revenue protection, approval rates, chargebacks, and platform trust.   You will partner closely with Product, Risk Operations, Data Science, Compliance, and Payments leadership to define and execute the technical roadmap for fraud and risk engineering.   ABOUT US   Xsolla is a global commerce company with robust tools and services to help developers solve the inherent challenges of the video game industry. From indie to AAA, companies partner with Xsolla to help them fund, distribute, market, and monetize their games. Grounded in the belief in the future of video games, Xsolla is resolute in the mission to bring opportunities together, and continually make new resources available to creators. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, Xsolla operates as the merchant of record and has helped over 1,500+ game developers to reach more players and grow their businesses around the world. With more paths to profits and ways to win, developers have all the things needed to enjoy the game. For more information, visit xsolla.com. Responsibilities: • Lead and develop 1–2 engineering teams (8–20 engineers, depending on structure). • Build a high-performance culture focused on reliability, ownership, and measurable impact. • Hire, mentor, and grow senior engineers and technical leads. • Establish clear accountability, delivery standards, and engineering excellence practices. • Define and execute the multi-year technical strategy for AFS aligned with company growth. • Drive architectural evolution of: Real-time fraud scoring and decisioning systems, Rule engines and workflow orchestration, Vendor integrations and third-party fraud platforms, Internal tools for risk operations and investigations. • Balance fraud mitigation with conversion optimization and user experience. • Ensure systems scale globally across payment methods, regions, and regulatory environments. • Oversee delivery of key fraud-related initiatives such as: Chargeback reduction programs, Approval rate optimization, Risk segmentation and policy evolution, High-risk payment method controls • Lead cross-functional execution during fraud spikes, incidents, or scheme escalations. • Establish strong observability, monitoring, and incident response processes. • Provide engineering leadership across: Card-not-present transactions, Alternative payment methods (APMs), 3DS and risk-based authentication flows, and Payment scheme compliance requirements. • Collaborate with Compliance and Legal teams to meet regulatory obligations. • Evaluate build-vs-buy decisions for fraud vendors and risk tooling. • Partner closely with: Product Management on roadmap prioritization, Risk & Operations on fraud policies and tooling, Data Science on model deployment and experimentation, Platform Engineering on infrastructure and scalability. • Act as a senior technical voice in company-level architecture discussions Qualifications & Skills: • 10+ years in software engineering, with significant experience in payments, fintech, or risk systems. • 3+ years leading multiple teams or managing managers. • Proven ownership of Anti-Fraud Systems (AFS) or similar risk platforms. • Experience operating high-throughput, low-latency, mission-critical systems. • Demonstrated success balancing fraud prevention with revenue and customer experience goals. • Strong background in distributed systems architecture. • Experience with: Real-time decision engines, Event-driven architectures, High-availability systems, Secure system design in regulated environments. • Deep understanding of fraud vectors in digital commerce and payment ecosystems. • Hands-on knowledge of: Chargeback and dispute management, Payment schemes (Visa, Mastercard, etc.), 3DS flows and risk exemptions, and Fraud detection methodologies (rules, behavioral analysis, ML-driven scoring). • Experience integrating and managing third-party fraud vendors. • Strategic thinker who can align engineering with business risk and revenue goals. • Strong stakeholder management across technical and non-technical teams. • Data-driven decision maker. • Comfortable leading in ambiguous, high-risk, high-impact domains Nice to Have: • Experience in gaming or digital goods ecosystems. • Exposure to AML/KYC adjacent systems. • Experience building globally distributed teams. • Familiarity with experimentation frameworks (A/B testing for fraud & risk policies). We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.