Risk Strategist

Whatnot; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous holiday and time off policy

Health Insurance (Medical, Dental, Vis

Work From Home Support

Home office setup allowance

Monthly allowance for cell phone and 0

Monthly wellness allowances

Annual childcare allowance

Lifetime family planning benefit

401k matching up to 4% (US)

Dogfood budget to use Whatnot app

Parental leave: 16 weeks

Job summary

Whatnot is hiring for a Risk Strategist to blend data analysis, hands-on investigation, and technical problem-solving to protect our live marketplace. You will explore how fraud operates, translate insights into durable defenses, and help shape risk strategy alongside Product and Engineering.

As part of a remote co-located team, you will work with SQL, scripting, and AI-assisted tooling, building repeatable signals and controls while coordinating with cross-functional partners to drive impact

Qualifications

• Entrepreneurial drive to identify opportunities and turn ambiguous problems into action.
• Ownership and initiative to lead direction, remove blockers, and drive outcomes.
• Investigative depth to reconstruct abuse and connect cases to patterns.
• Strategic and product judgment to prioritize improvements and roadmaps.
• Cross-functional influence to align technical and operations partners.
• Hands-on SQL, scripting, and AI-assisted tools to investigate problems.
• Bias for measurable impact balancing fraud prevention with user experience.

Responsibilities

• Investigate fraud at its source across accounts and transactions.
• Translate findings into repeatable detection signals, rules, controls, and product improvements.
• Shape strategy with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Operations to define direction and roadmap.
• Drive cross-functional execution from problem definition through implementation.
• Stay hands-on with SQL and scripting; prototype lightweight solutions.
• Monitor emerging fraud trends and defense performance, balancing prevention with user experience.
• Embed protection into new products and journeys, evaluating abuse risks before/after launch.

Skills

Entrepreneurial drive

Ownership and initiative

Investigative depth

Strategic and product judgment

Cross-functional influence

Hands-on SQL

Bias for measurable impact

Tools

SQL

Job description

Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest live shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories. We're building live commerce at a scale that's never been done in the West, and there's no playbook to copy. The people here are shaping how an entirely new industry develops.

As a remote co-located team, we're inspired by our values and anchored in hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia. We move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact.

We're one of the fastest growing marketplaces and were recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our news and engineering blogs and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.

Role

Risk Strategists at Whatnot combine data analysis, hands-on investigation, and technical problem-solving to protect our marketplace. You'll dig into how fraud works, translate those insights into durable defenses, and help shape our risk strategy and Product and Engineering roadmap. This role requires both attention to detail and the ability to turn individual findings into broader action.

• Investigate fraud at its source. Examine suspicious accounts, transactions, and connected activity to understand fraudsters’ modus operandi, the methods, behavioral patterns, coordination tactics, and product or process gaps they exploit.

• Build durable defenses. Translate investigative findings into repeatable detection signals, rules, controls, and product improvements that address underlying vulnerabilities rather than individual incidents.

• Shape strategy and priorities. Partner with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Operations to define strategic direction, prioritize opportunities, and develop a roadmap that balances immediate threats with long-term protection.

• Drive cross-functional execution. Turn complex findings into clear recommendations, build alignment on tradeoffs, and carry initiatives from problem definition through implementation and iteration.

• Stay hands-on and technical. Use SQL, scripting, automation, and AI-assisted development tools to investigate problems and prototype solutions. Where appropriate, contribute lightweight tools and small, well-scoped application features in partnership with Engineering.

• Measure and improve outcomes. Monitor emerging fraud trends and defense performance, balancing fraud prevention with false positives, customer experience, and operational efficiency.

• Embed protection into new experiences. Evaluate abuse risks in new products, markets, and customer journeys, and help design safeguards before and after launch.

We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco hubs.

About You

Curious about who thrives at Whatnot? We've found that low ego, a growth mindset, and leaning into action and high impact goes a long way here, but here are a few criteria we're looking for in this role:

• Entrepreneurial drive. You proactively identify opportunities, challenge assumptions, and turn ambiguous problems into concrete action. You're resourceful and willing to build, test, and iterate rather than wait for the perfect solution.

• Ownership and initiative. You take the driver's seat: establish a direction, bring others along, remove blockers, and maintain momentum. You own outcomes—not just the analysis or recommendation.

• Investigative depth. You reconstruct how abuse happens, test competing hypotheses, and connect individual cases to broader patterns. You dig beyond aggregate metrics to understand the underlying behavior.

• Strategic and product judgment. You translate detailed findings into durable improvements, make thoughtful tradeoffs, and help determine what the team should prioritize and build next.

• Cross-functional influence. You build trust, communicate a clear point of view, and align technical and operational partners. You constructively challenge decisions and drive progress without relying on formal authority.

• Hands-on technical ability. You're proficient in SQL and comfortable using scripting, automation, and AI-assisted development tools to investigate problems and build lightweight solutions. You validate outputs and partner with Engineering on production implementation.

• A bias for measurable impact. You move from insight to execution, learn quickly from results, and follow through until solutions deliver meaningful improvements - balancing fraud prevention with the experience of legitimate buyers and sellers.

Benefits

• Generous Holiday and Time off Policy

• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision

• Work From Home Support

  • Home office setup allowance

  • Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet

• Care benefits

  • Monthly allowance for wellness

  • Annual allowance towards Childcare

  • Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses

• Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally

• Monthly allowance to dogfood the app

  • All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our "product". We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).

• Parental Leave

  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

Please note: Whatnot will only contact you through official @whatnot.com email addresses. If you see an email impersonating a Whatnot recruiter, please disregard and report it as spam.

EOE

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.