Risk Strategist

🚀 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](https://www.whatnot.com/careersprinciples) 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](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/business/dealbook/whatnot-livestream-shopping-fundraise.html) and were recently named the [1 Best Startup Employer in America](https://www.forbes.com/lists/americas-best-startup-employers/) by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our [news](https://blog.teamwhatnot.com/) and [engineering blogs](https://medium.com/whatnot-engineering) 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 th