Senior Optimization Data Analyst

About the Position

Senior Optimization Data Analyst

Chicago

At Adyen, we provide payments, data, and financial products in a single solution for customers like Meta, Uber, H&M, and Microsoft. We are the financial technology platform of choice, engineered for ambition. 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.

We are looking for a Senior Optimization Data Analyst to take a defining role in how Adyen drives payment performance for its most complex merchants. As a senior member of the Performance Optimization team, you will bring the full breadth of payment optimization expertise expected at this level, across authentication, authorization, and cost, while going deeper in risk, fraud, and ML-driven decisioning than any other role on the team. You will combine hands-on technical capability with recognized domain expertise in risk to lead the team's most complex merchant engagements, shape PO's analytical methodology, and accelerate the adoption of Adyen's optimization capabilities across the merchant portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Domain-Led Merchant Engagement: Lead PO's most complex merchant engagements in the risk, fraud, and ML optimization domain. This includes designing and interpreting sophisticated analyses, advising merchants on how to safely operationalize ML-driven decisioning systems, identifying performance gaps that require domain-level expertise to diagnose, and driving strategic improvements in fraud strategy, risk rule configuration, authentication flows, and authorization performance across Adyen's largest customers.
• Risk Analysis and Insight Generation: Work directly with large-scale risk model data, including ML output and labeled risk data, to analyze model behavior, detect performance patterns, and generate insights across merchant segments, traffic types, and risk profiles. In close collaboration with Adyen's product teams, contribute to building an analytical layer that connects model behavior to merchant strategy, improving explainability and enabling more targeted optimization.
• Product Collaboration and Portfolio Intelligence: Work closely with Adyen's risk product teams to contribute structured, data-backed insights based on patterns observed across the merchant portfolio. Identify where risk model configurations produce inconsistent outcomes across segments, where merchant strategies diverge from model behavior, and where analytical findings can inform product priorities, as well as ensure merchants are equipped to configure, trust, and act on model-driven recommendations.
• Analytical Excellence and Methodology Ownership: Drive the quality and rigor of PO's analytical work in the risk and fraud domain. Design and execute advanced data analyses, A/B tests, and statistical investigations that set the methodological standard for the broader team. Own the development of reusable analytical frameworks, experiment designs, and best practices that other ODAs and OMs can apply independently.
• Automation and Scalable Technical Solutions: Lead or contribute to automation initiatives that expand PO's reach beyond direct merchant engagement. Build scalable data products, tools, and analytical workflows that allow commercial stakeholders, including Account Managers and Sales teams, to access and act on risk and fraud optimization insights without requiring PO involvement for every interaction.
• Commercial Enablement and Knowledge Transfer: Develop playbooks, and reference frameworks that enable PO and commercial stakeholders to engage more confidently on risk and fraud optimization topics. Reduce PO's dependency on individual expertise by making domain knowledge transferable, documented, and accessible. Mentor and provide technical guidance to other analysts, fostering a culture of analytical rigor and continuous learning within the team.
• Emerging Optimization Domains: Develop and maintain a forward-looking perspective on where the risk and fraud optimization surface is evolving. This includes the implications of ML adoption curves, the declining value of scenario-based rules, and the emerging authentication and fraud challenges introduced by agentic commerce and agent-initiated payment flows. Translate this perspective into actionable frameworks for merchants and internal teams before these challenges become acute.

Requirements

• 10+ years of relevant experience in data analytics, data science, risk, or fraud optimization, with a demonstrated track record of driving measurable impact in a payments or fintech environment.
• Deep expertise in risk and fraud analytics, including hands-on experience working with ML-based decisioning systems and large-scale risk model data.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python, SQL, and PySpark.
• Strong experience with data visualization and self-service analytics tools such as Looker or Tableau.
• Deep understanding of statistical methods including hypothesis testing, experiment design, regression modeling.
• Experience with big data technologies including Spark and Airflow, and version control systems including Git.
• Proven ability to lead high-impact, cross-functional initiatives independently.
• Ownership mentality, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to operate in a fast-paced, cross-functional, global environment.
• A track record of making the people and teams around you more capable.

We Offer

• Competitive salary range: $154,000 - $200,000
• Total compensation package includes equity (RSUs), 401(k), health, dental, vision, and more.
• Office-first company with in-office expectations of at least 3 days a week in our Chicago office.

About the Company

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.

We actively seek different perspectives to sharpen our ideas. Our unique culture is a product of our diverse backgrounds and experiences. No matter who you are or where you’re from, you’re welcome to be your true self at Adyen.

If you need accommodations or support during the recruitment process to perform at your best, you’ll have the opportunity to let our team know in your application. We encourage people from all backgrounds and abilities to apply.

EEO Statement

Adyen is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, marital status or any legally protected status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.