CDD Risk Analyst, Event Driven Reviews

This is Adyen Adyen provides payments, data, and financial products in a single solution for customers like Meta, Uber, H&M, and Microsoft - making us the financial technology platform of choice. At Adyen, everything we do is engineered for ambition. For our teams, we create an environment with opportunities for our people to succeed, backed by the culture and support to ensure they are enabled to truly own their careers. We are motivated individuals who tackle unique technical challenges at scale and solve them as a team. Together, we deliver innovative and ethical solutions that help businesses achieve their ambitions faster. About the Team: As a CDD Risk Analyst, you will be focused on Event Driven Reviews (EDRs) , playing a critical frontline role in Adyen’s Global Merchant Operations Department. Unlike periodic scheduled reviews, Event-Driven Reviews are triggered dynamically by material changes in merchant risk profiles, transaction and chargeback anomalies, adverse media, regulatory alerts, corporate restructurings, or potential integrity escalations across our acquiring, issuing, and banking products. You will execute deep-dive investigative reviews into heightened risk events, evaluating whether merchant activity remains in line with Adyen’s Risk Appetite. Working closely with AML, Fraud, Sanctions, Payment Risk, Credit Risk, Product, and Commercial teams, you will safeguard the platform while ensuring minimal operational friction for legitimate business growth. What you’ll do: • Conduct comprehensive, deep-dive investigations on merchants triggered by automated monitoring, adverse media, portfolio alerts, scheme notices, or commercial escalations, evaluating sudden shifts in business models, operational footprint, transaction patterns, or ownership structure. • Evaluate whether existing merchants remain within Adyen’s Risk Appetite Framework, identifying and assessing non-financial crime risks such as high-risk/prohibited business practices, regulatory licensing gaps, excessive scheme compliance exposures, and corporate reputational risks. • Dissect complex corporate structures, ultimate beneficial ownership (UBOs), product lines, delivery models, and counterparty relationships to uncover the root causes of risk triggers and establish clear risk rationales. • Formulate and execute decisive risk actions, ranging from implementing enhanced operational monitoring and contract amendments to initiating formal offboarding workflows when a merchant breaches Adyen’s risk threshold. • Act as the strategic bridge between First and Second Lines of Defense, partnering with Underwriting, Credit Risk, Legal, Compliance, AML/Screening, Fraud, and Account Management to align on complex risk determinations and holistic portfolio health. • Continuously evolve and maintain EDR standards, decision frameworks, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and internal training to institutionalize best practices across global operational hubs. • Articulate nuanced, high-stakes risk decisions and evidence-backed rationales clearly to senior internal leadership, scheme representatives, regulators, and merchant executive teams. Who you are: • 4–6 years of experience in Merchant Risk, Underwriting, Risk Appetite Assessment, Integrity/Trust & Safety, or Complex Investigations within a global Payment Service Provider (PSP), Acquiring/Issuing Bank, high-growth FinTech platform or Financial Economic Crimes. • Comprehensive understanding of the global payments value chain (acquiring, issuing, schemes/card networks, banking products), including payment methods, scheme compliance frameworks, and associated credit/operational risk exposures. • Proven track record in evaluating non-financial crime risks, such as high-risk/prohibited business models, regulatory licensing compliance, brand and reputational risks, merchant misrepresentation, and contractual non-compliance. • High comfort level operating in grey areas with a proven willingness to make and defend difficult, high-stakes decisions (e.g., dynamic risk mitigation, merchant termination/offboarding) backed by solid evidence and business rationale. • Strong data literacy (experience with SQL, Tableau, Looker, or any similar BI tools is preferred), and skilled at leveraging transaction datasets, portfolio metrics, and risk signals to uncover systemic trends and design scalable detection logic. • A self-starter with high ownership who thrives in an international, matrixed environment, comfortably influencing cross-functional leaders (Underwriting, Legal, Compliance, Account Management) and engaging executive merchant stakeholders. • You challenge the status quo constructively, thrive in a fast-paced environment with rapid feedback loops, and embody the Adyen Formula, believing that winning as a team is more important than ego. • You have a strong risk-driven mindset, exceptional professional judgment, and the ability to conduct holistic risk assessments. • You are someone who does not wait for step-by-step playbooks—you proactively create direction, conclude on integrity risks, risk appetite, mitigating factors and execute action plans end-to-end. • You work with high energy, positive mindset and intentional attitude, ensuring we do our best daily. • You will be a gatekeeper, identifying, assessing, looking for mitigating measures and helping business and senior management in the customer decision making process. • ACAMS or Financial Economic Crimes related certifications are a plus. Total rewards & compensation The annual base salary range for this role is $85,000 - $110,000. Compensation is based on factors including qualifications, experience, and location. Total compensation package includes equity (RSUs), 401(k), health, dental, vision, and more. In-office expectations This role is based in our Chicago office. We're an office-first company and expect employees to work in-office at least 3 days a week on average. This approach help