Principal Architect, Risk

Payments platform that focuses on iGaming, video gaming, e-commerce, retail, travel and hospitality. Paysafe has 30 years of expertise in payment technology, supporting card payments, digital wallets such as Skrill, eCash solutions like PaysafeCard, and local payment methods. Approximately 2,900 employees across 12 countries and an annualized transaction volume of $167 billion in 2025 connect businesses and consumers worldwide through innovative payment experiences.

It starts here. Have a global impact on the world of payments.

We are seeking a senior, strategic Principal Architect - Risk Platform to define and drive the architectural vision of Paysafe's global Risk capabilities. This is not a narrow solution role.

Risk at Paysafe does not operate with traditional product teams. As such, this architect will:

• Act as the architectural authority and product-level thought partner for Risk
• Translate regulatory and commercial objectives into scalable platform capabilities
• Define the long-term Risk technology roadmap
• Shape how we build, integrate, orchestrate, and evolve risk engines globally

You will operate at the intersection of architecture, regulation, platform engineering, and product strategy.

What Paysafe stands for

• Being open and honest.
• Keeping focused.
• Operating with Courage.
• Pioneering the future.

Our values and culture are driven by Equality, Development, Social Responsibility and Wellbeing. If you want to find out more about life at Paysafe, check out our careers page.

How we work

We follow a hybrid working model, spending an average of three days per week at our office location in Gresham Street next to St Paul's Cathedral with easy access via St Paul's, Bank, Cannon Street, City Thameslink, Liverpool Street, Farringdon, and Mansion House.

What You Will Own Risk Platform Vision & Architecture

• Define and evolve the target architecture for the global Risk Platform
• Design end-to-end architectures for:
• Merchant underwriting and KYB
• PEP & sanctions screening
• Identity verification & device intelligence
• Ongoing due diligence and regulatory reporting
• Establish domain boundaries and service decomposition for risk capabilities
• Define scalable API contracts and event-driven flows for decisioning and reporting

Regulatory Translation into Architecture

• Lead structured discovery sessions with:
• Risk
• Compliance
• Legal
• Regulatory
• KYC / AML
• Sanctions
• Translate AML, CDD/EDD, PSD2/PSD3, EMI licensing, and regional regulatory obligations into:
• Platform capabilities
• Regulatory explainability
• Audit trails
• Reporting obligations across UK, EU, and US

Real-Time Risk & Event-Driven Decisioning

• Define integration patterns for:
• Real-time scoring
• Kafka / streaming frameworks
• Orchestration and fallback strategies
• Ensure deterministic and observable decision pipelines
• Architect integrations with external risk/compliance vendors such as:
• LexisNexis
• Ekata
• AML engines
• Sanctions screening services
• Define:
• Data mapping strategies
• Orchestration patterns
• Fallback and resilience patterns
• Reduce lock-in while preserving regulatory robustness
• Design cloud-native, horizontally scalable risk services in AWS/Azure
• Define:
• API gateway strategies
• Identity and access control models
• Data partitioning and sovereignty controls
• Architect for:
• Multi-region resiliency
• Regulatory data residency constraints
• Observability
• Infrastructure as Code
• Design structured, semi-structured, and event-based data persistence strategies
• Support:
• Batch AML monitoring
• Regulatory reporting
• Merchants
• Transactions
• Case management
• Ensure compatibility with enterprise data lake and analytics platforms
• Act as trusted adviser to Risk leadership
• Influence roadmap prioritization and capability sequencing
• Mentor engineers and domain architects
• Drive architecture standards and review forums
• Collaborate across Merchant, Consumer, and Platform engineering groups

Technical Expertise Required

• 10+ years in architecture and engineering roles
• Deep experience in risk and compliance systems within fintech or payments
• Sanctions & PEP screening expertise
• Strong hands-on knowledge of:
• Event-driven architectures
• Kafka / streaming systems
• Experience designing structured and event-based data models
• Cloud-native architecture experience (AWS or Azure; multi-region preferred)
• Strong background in integrating third-party risk vendors

Domain & Regulatory Knowledge

• Strong understanding of:
• AMLD requirements
• PSD2 / PSD3
• PCI DSS
• EMI / E-money licensing constraints
• Familiarity with explainable AI in risk decisioning
• Audit and regulatory inspection readiness

What Makes This Role Different

• Shape the Risk Platform as a product
• Influence regulatory readiness at architectural level
• Design systems that protect Paysafe's balance sheet
• Enable commercial growth while reducing fraud and regulatory exposure

Ideal Profile

• Systems thinker with regulatory fluency
• Commercially aware
• Able to operate at board-level discussions and deep technical reviews

A snippet of what you'll get in return

• Make your day work for you with our flexible working hours
• You decide what your holiday looks like with the option to buy or sell your holiday and carry over up to 5 days into the next year
• Enjoy social events on our rooftop terrace with views onto St Paul's Cathedral
• Our fully equipped facilities include showers, hairdryers and straighteners and fresh towels
• Start your day with a free breakfast, fresh fruit and snacks
• Take a breather in our dedicated wellbeing room
• Spend time with those important to you with our enhanced paid family policies
• Test our products Skrill and Neteller. Upon joining we will award you £50 into each wallet
• Enjoy our discounts on memberships via vitality including gyms, leisure centres, yoga/Pilates across the country
• Need a new Laptop or TV? We offer support purchasing Apple and LG products via Stormfront technology
• Join our six employee-led equality communities and help foster a workplace that celebrates diversity and creates opportunities to collaborate and learn
• Give back to the community with four paid charity days
• Kickstart your weekend early with our summer hours during the months of June, July and August with a 3pm finish every Friday
• We also offer private health insurance (pre-existing conditions are included), dental insurance, income protection, life assurance and more

What to expect next

• Phone screen with Talent Acquisition
• Video introduction with the Hiring Manager
• Technical interviews with members of the team
• Business interview with key stakeholder
• Invited into the office for HR interview and to meet the team

Paysafe is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to providing a work environment of mutual respect to everyone without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.