Tech Lead

About Xsolla

Xsolla is a global commerce company serving the video game industry with payment processing, fraud prevention, and monetization solutions. Operating at massive scale across hundreds of countries and payment methods, Xsolla handles complex risk, compliance, and fraud challenges in real time.

The Anti-Fraud team is a critical part of Xsolla’s platform, protecting players, developers, and partners while maintaining seamless user experiences.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Tech Lead to drive the technical direction, architecture, and delivery of Xsolla’s fraud prevention and risk systems. This role requires deep fintech and payments experience, strong understanding of Anti-Fraud Systems (AFS), and the ability to lead engineers building high-throughput, low-latency, decision-critical systems.

You will work closely with Product, Data Science, Risk Operations, Compliance, and Platform teams to design and evolve fraud detection, prevention, and investigation capabilities at global scale.

• Technical Leadership & Architecture
• Own the technical vision and architecture of Xsolla’s anti-fraud platform and services.
• Design scalable, resilient systems for real-time transaction risk scoring, rule engines, and decision workflows.
• Lead architectural decisions around AFS integrations, internal fraud engines, and third-party providers.
• Ensure systems meet performance, reliability, security, and compliance requirements.
• Fraud & Fintech Domain Leadership
• Translate fraud and risk requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Partner with Risk, Payments, and Compliance teams on:
• Transaction monitoring
• Chargeback reduction
• AML / KYC-adjacent workflows (where applicable)
• Regulatory and scheme requirements (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
• Evaluate and evolve fraud strategies across:
• Card-not-present transactions
• Alternative payment methods
• Digital goods and gaming-specific fraud vectors
• Engineering Execution
• Lead a team of engineers (directly or as a technical lead across squads).
• Drive best practices in:
• Code quality and reviews
• System observability and alerting
• Secure development
• Incident response and root cause analysis
• Balance speed, risk, and quality in a high-impact domain.
• Collaboration & Influence
• Work cross-functionally with Product Managers, Data Scientists, and Operations.
• Mentor senior and mid-level engineers in both technical depth and domain expertise.
• Act as a technical escalation point for complex fraud-related incidents.

• Technical Experience
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant time in fintech or payments.
• Proven experience designing or leading Anti-Fraud Systems (AFS), such as:
• Rule engines
• Risk scoring pipelines
• Decision orchestration systems
•  Strong backend engineering skills (e.g., Java, Kotlin, Go, or similar).
• Experience building high-volume, low-latency distributed systems.

• Event-driven architectures
• APIs and integrations
• Data stores used for real-time decisioning
• Domain Expertise

• Payment processing
• Digital commerce or marketplaces
• Gaming or virtual goods (strong plus)
• Understanding of fraud patterns, abuse vectors, and mitigation techniques.

• Chargebacks and dispute flows
• 3DS, risk exemptions, and payment scheme rules
• Working with external fraud vendors and tools

• Proven ability to lead technically without relying solely on formal authority.
• Strong decision-making skills in ambiguous, high-risk domains.
• Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex technical and fraud concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable owning outcomes in a mission-critical area.

• Experience working with data science or ML-driven fraud models.
• Knowledge of AML, KYC, or regulatory frameworks.
• Prior experience in global payment platforms or PSPs.
• Experience operating systems at global scale (multiple regions, currencies, and regulations).