Tech Lead Manager, Fraud & Risk Engineering

Whatnot; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 215,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible Time off Policy

Health Insurance options

Work From Home Support

Care benefits

Retirement plans

Parental Leave

Job summary

Whatnot is seeking a Fraud Engineering Manager to lead the algorithms and infrastructure preventing financial abuse. This role requires a candidate with a strong background in software engineering and team management, committed to hands-on technical work while scaling the team.

Ideal candidates should have over 7 years of experience, particularly with Python and fraud detection systems. Compensation ranges from $215,000 to $285,000 annually, plus benefits and stock options.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• 2+ years of experience managing teams in a high-growth environment.
• Experience writing production code in Python.

Responsibilities

• Lead the fraud engineering team in developing prevention algorithms.
• Handle both hands-on technical work and team management.
• Communicate effectively with leadership and product teams.

Skills

Software engineering

Team management

Python programming

Fraud detection systems

Project leadership

Data-driven mindset

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. We’re re-defining e-commerce by blending community, shopping, and entertainment into a community just for you. As a remote co-located team, we’re inspired by innovation and anchored in our values. With hubs in the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, and Germany, we’re building the future of online marketplaces—together.

From fashion, beauty, and electronics to rare collectibles like trading cards, comic books, and even live plants, our live auctions have something for everyone.

And we’re just getting started! As one of the fastest growing marketplaces, we’re looking for bold, forward-thinking problem solvers across all functional areas. 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

The Fraud Engineering team owns the algorithms & infrastructure that prevent financial abuse in all of its forms. This includes preventing stolen card fraud, detecting refund & referral abuse, & establishing user identity, to name just a few.

We’re looking for a seasoned, hands‑on leader who will bring a deep entrepreneurial drive, a first‑principles understanding of abuse vectors, & rigorous thinking about business tradeoffs. Candidates for this role should be excited about both getting their hands dirty early on–the fraud team is very small, so its new manager will need to devote a large share of their bandwidth to deep technical work as they scale out the team–& taking on more management responsibilities over time.

US Based Role:

Required to be within commuting distance of our Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, or San Francisco Hubs

You

In addition to embodying our cultural principles, great candidates will also have 7+ years of total experience in software engineering as either an individual contributor or manager, plus:

• 2+ years of management experience building, mentoring, performance managing, & guiding the execution of teams in a high-growth environment.
• 2+ years of software engineering experience building for consumer‑scale loads.
• 1+ years of experience writing production code in Python.
• 1+ years of experience developing fraud detection & prevention systems preferred.
• A love of technical work. You are excited about spending a significant portion of your bandwidth writing code & serving as a tech lead as you scale out your team.
• Exceptional project leadership & communication. You simultaneously lead multiple initiatives across several product areas & effectively communicate findings with leadership & product teams.
• Relentnessness & entrepreneurship. You prioritize your work ruthlessly & run through walls to get things done. Your curiosity drives you to dig into user problems & craft suggestions on how we can address them.
• Business intuition & a data‑driven mindset. You think critically about the growth headwinds fraud prevention systems can create. Explicit data science or machine‑learning experience is a huge plus.
• Obsession with impact. You are focused on driving value for users & have a track record of deploying simple solutions wherever feasible. You move as fast as possible without sacrificing quality.
• Technical expertise. You regularly commit code, write RFCs, & meaningfully contribute to technical discussions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Economics, a related technical field, or equivalent work experience.

Compensation

For US‑based applicants: $215,000 - $285,000/year + benefits + stock options

The salary range may be inclusive of several levels that would be applicable to the position. Final salary will be based on a number of factors including, level, relevant prior experience, skills and expertise. This range is only inclusive of base salary, not benefits (more details below) or equity in the form of stock options.

Benefits

• Flexible Time off Policy and Company‑wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)
• 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 on both food and 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
• 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.

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.