Senior Underwriter

We're reinventing payments.
In less than four years, Dojo disrupted the market to become the largest and most loved acquirer in the UK. Our payments infrastructure, purpose-built for in-person commerce, is game changing.

Now, over 150,000 customers across four countries choose to transact billions with us every year.

But we're just getting started.

Our people are the driving force behind our success. They are our greatest investment and our ultimate competitive advantage. We hire exceptional people and give them the autonomy, trust, and ownership to thrive. The results take care of themselves.

The Role
As the Italian Market Senior Underwriter, you will play a critical role in protecting Dojo from financial, fraud, and reputational risks while enabling sustainable growth in the Italian market.

Sitting at the intersection of commercial enablement and expert risk mitigation, you will take ownership of our most complex and high-value credit-risk cases, often involving bespoke financial arrangements, complex Italian legal structures, and scaling propositions.

You will bring deep credit and risk expertise to the table and will be trusted to mentor team members on advanced financial analysis, lead risk-related projects, and confidently represent the underwriting function with senior stakeholders, including Commercial Leads, Legal teams, and Country Managers.

This is a high-impact role where your decisions directly influence Dojo's growth, risk appetite, and the professional development of the local team.

*What You Will Do...
Advanced Credit Risk Analysis and Decision Authority*

• Lead Complex Underwriting Cases: Assess and make recommendations on complex Italian merchant applications, focusing on those involving significant credit risk exposure, enterprise clients, high-risk industries, and bespoke financial arrangements.
• Card Schemes Knowledge: exercise decision authority with a deep understanding of all acquiring risks, card scheme regulations, and the chargeback process.
• Credit & KYC Expertise: Perform detailed credit assessments using expert analysis of Italian financial accounts, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Navigate multi-jurisdictional and complex Italian ownership structures during KYC/KYB reviews.
• Decision Authority & Escalation: Make decisions within your own delegated underwriting authority and recommend cases beyond your limit to the appropriate sanctioning level, always providing clear, concise rationale and comprehensive documentation.

*Team Enablement and Mentorship*

• Mentorship & Training: Act as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for credit risk, providing coaching, guidance, and training to underwriters and associates. Support the development of technical knowledge, underwriting judgment, and advanced financial analysis skills within the Italian team.
• Team Guidance & Workflow Support: Play a visible leadership role in supporting BAU operations through task allocation and prioritisation, monitoring daily workflows, and helping the team stay focused and engaged, particularly during periods of high volume or complexity.

*Strategic Stakeholder Management*

• Stakeholder Engagement: Partner with Commercial Leads, Legal, Compliance and the Italian Country Manager to resolve high-impact underwriting queries, escalate complex cases, and influence commercial strategies through an expert risk lens.
• Contract Review & Negotiation: Collaborate directly with the Legal team on reviewing, negotiating, and finalising contractual arrangements and security requirements for high-risk or custom merchant onboarding.

*Project Ownership and Policy Development*

• Project Ownership: Represent the risk function in cross-functional projects, system upgrades, automation initiatives and product launches, ensuring core risk requirements and Italian market nuances are built into solutions from the outset.
• Policy Development: Drive continuous improvement by contributing to local underwriting policies, process enhancements, and risk tooling with a focus on scalability and effectiveness for the Italian market.

*Fraud & AML Mitigation*

• Risk Oversight: Identify and escalate indicators of fraud, AML, or reputational risk associated with Italian applicants, recommending appropriate security measures or contractual protections to safeguard Dojo's interests.
• Regulatory Compliance: Apply an understanding of Italian and EU regulatory and risk frameworks while helping maintain consistency in global underwriting standards.

*What You Will Bring...
Expertise & Knowledge*

• Depth of Experience: Extensive underwriting and credit risk experience in payments, banking, or financial services, with a proven background in credit analysis.
• Technical Knowledge: Strong understanding of credit, fraud, AML risks, card scheme regulations, and chargeback processes.
• Educational Background: Degree-qualified (or equivalent experience) in Finance, Economics, or a related discipline. Relevant professional certifications are highly desirable.
• Languages: Fluency in Italian and English is essential.
• Authority & Judgment: Experience working under your own delegated underwriting authority and confidence in handling senior-level escalations.
• Commercial Acumen: Ability to balance risk and growth, offering solutions that enable strategic Italian merchant onboarding without compromising control integrity.
• Leadership Qualities: Motivated to contribute to the development of others through mentorship and thought leadership within the Italian team.

Dojo home and away
We believe our best work happens when we collaborate in-person. These "together days" foster communication, drive innovation and spark our brightest ideas.

That's why we have an office-first culture. This means working from the office 4+ days per week.

With offices across Europe, we know a thing or two about staying dynamic. Need deep focus? Head to a quiet zone. Big ideas? Collaboration spaces have you covered. Just here for a catch-up? Our social hubs make it easy. Do work that counts, in spaces made for you.

Question: what's curious, relentless, and customer obsessed?
If you're keen to know the answer, you're a third of the way to meeting our Dojo values.

If the following speak to you, let's talk:

• You're curious. You have a real desire to learn and create.
• You're relentless. You keep going even when it's easier not to.
• You're customer-obsessed. You know how important customers are to what you do.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion at Dojo
From local bakeries to well-known eateries, Dojo payments serve over 150,000 places across the UK.

And something that's fundamental to creating relevant, innovative products at Dojo is to build teams to reflect the diversity of the businesses we serve.

Our drive to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion is closely linked to helping employees thrive and innovating for better customer experiences.

If you care about your work, you're curious, and you think customer-first, you have a place at Dojo.

To make sure you're the best you can be throughout the recruitment process, let us know if you need any extra adjustments to help you thrive.

Visit dojo.careers to find out more about our benefits and what it's like to work at Dojo, or check out our LinkedIn and Instagram pages.