---
title: 'Payments and Risk Operations Lead at Atoms'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/payments-and-risk-operations-lead-atoms-new-york-a3zqgm918jfa'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-15'
---

# Payments and Risk Operations Lead at Atoms

- **Company:** Atoms
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Posted:** 2026-09-28
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-15
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/cssmerge/jobs/8853122002

## Job description

## Who we are

Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress.

Over the last decade, software has transformed the digital world. But the physical world, where food is made, minerals are mined, goods are moved, and industries are run, remains far less intelligent, far less efficient, and far more constrained. We’re changing that.

Atoms builds Physical AI— real-world robots for the industries that move civilization forward, starting with food, mining, and transport. Our systems are designed to understand, predict, and control the real world with precision, turning complex physical operations into something more reliable, more scalable, and more productive.

This work requires more than robotics. It requires deep integration across hardware, software, AI, operations, manufacturing, and real estate. We don’t just build machines in a lab. We deploy them into real environments, operate them, learn from them, and improve them until they work at scale.

We are roboticists, engineers, operators, and builders. We believe the next great technology companies will not only transform information, but the physical systems that shape everyday life.

If you want to work on hard problems with real-world impact, join us.

## About the Role

Our Payments & Risk Operations team is responsible for the day to day health, reliability, and integrity of our payments platform across the Atoms portfolio, including Otter, CloudKitchens, Picnic, Lab37, and more.

We are looking for someone to own the function end to end across both payments operations and risk operations. From a payments operations perspective, you will own the operational health of pay-ins and payouts, work through processor and merchant issues, identify recurring failure points, and improve payment reliability. Across risk operations, you will own fraud and abuse programs spanning chargebacks, account takeovers, refunds and appeasements, promotional abuse, and emerging threats.

This is a highly hands on, high agency role for someone who is proactive, accountable, and comfortable operating in ambiguity. We are looking for someone who sees an issue, digs into the details, brings the right people together, and drives it through resolution. Whether investigating a merchant escalation, working directly with a processor, analyzing trends in SQL, improving a BPO workflow, or partnering with Product and Engineering on a longer term solution, the right person will bring structure where it is needed, spot gaps early, and continuously raise the bar for how the function operates.

## What you’ll do

- Own Payments & Risk Operations end to end. Set the operating agenda, identify where we need to improve, and drive the work forward across both payment operations and risk.
- Own the full risk operations portfolio, including transaction fraud, account takeovers, chargebacks, refunds and appeasements, promotional abuse, KYC/KYB, sanctions related operations, and emerging risk vectors. Continuously evaluate where our controls need to evolve as the business and threat landscape change.
- Serve as the central point of contact for major fraud events and high severity payment or risk escalations, including executive escalations. Take ownership of the response, bring together the right stakeholders, and drive issues through resolution.
- Ability to operate independently and navigate ambiguity with minimal guidance.
- Lead a BPO team responsible for frontline payment and risk operations. Set the team's SOPs, workflows, escalation paths, quality standards, and priorities, and make sure they have the context and tools needed to operate effectively.
- Identify operational pain points before they become recurring problems. Develop a clear point of view on where processes need to change, where tooling is falling short, and where Product and Engineering investment can make the function more scalable.
- Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including Product, Sales, Legal, Customer Success, and Customer Support to drive coordinated risk strategies.
- Own the risk P&L, partnering with Finance and Accounting to report on loss metrics and surface key trends impacting the business.
- Lead red team exercises in collaboration with stakeholders across the company to proactively identify vulnerabilities and stay ahead of emerging risks.

## What we’re looking for

- 4-7 years of hands on experience in payments operations, fraud and risk, or financial operations, with meaningful experience across both payments and risk.
- Strong understanding of payment processing and money movement, including pay-ins, payouts, settlement, reconciliation, and processor operations.
- Strong analytical skills, including SQL, with experience using data to identify trends, define KPIs, and drive operational improvements.
- Experience leading or partnering with BPO teams and managing relationships with payment processors, financial partners, and third-party risk vendors.
- High-agency operator with strong cross-functional communication skills, a bias for action, and a proven ability to take ambiguous problems from identification through resolution.

## Why join us

At Atoms, you’ll work on one of the defining challenges of our time—bringing automation into the physical world to drive real, lasting impact. We exist to uncover valuable unknown truths and turn them into progress, which means constantly pushing beyond what’s known and building what doesn’t yet exist. The work is ambitious and often challenging, but it’s grounded in a shared sense of purpose and a team committed to seeing it through together. Our work only matters if it serves others, and we know that meaningful progress depends on the trust of the people we serve and the strength of our team—so we invest in both, creating an environment where you can do your best work and grow.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our New York office. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

The base salary range for this role is $140,000 - $165,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards and an annual performance-based bonus.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):

- Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans, incl. HSA options).
- Company-paid life and disability insurance (short- and long-term).
- Voluntary insurance: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity.
- Optional supplemental life insurance for self, spouse, and children.
- Pet insurance discount.
- 401(k).
- Health Savings Account (HSA)
- Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)
- Time Off policies:
- Discretionary vacation days
- 8 paid holidays per year
- Paid sick time
- Paid Bereavement leave
- Paid Parental Leave

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion. Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

#LI-Onsite

## About Atoms

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Atoms builds physical automation systems—robotics, AI, software, and infrastructure—for mining, transport, and food industries to automate the physical world.
- **Entity Type**: Private (formerly City Storage Systems; rebranded from CloudKitchens/ProFood parent)
- **Headquarters**: Los Angeles, California, United States
- **Founded**: Rebranded as Atoms in March 2026; predecessor City Storage Systems founded earlier (~2018)
- **Founders**: Travis Kalanick (CEO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Physical AI, Robotics, Automation Machinery Manufacturing, Industrial Infrastructure
- Target customers: Mining/quarry operators, transportation & logistics companies, food service brands and kitchens (B2B, heavy industrial)
- Mission or purpose statement: “We build progress machines.” / “The constraint on human progress is our ability to automate the physical world.”

## Products & Services
- **Atoms Mining**: Autonomous haulage systems for mines and quarries designed to improve productivity, safety, and efficiency in complex industrial environments.
- **Atoms Transport**: Wheelbase for robots — autonomous delivery and logistics systems for moving goods. Includes the acquired Pronto AI technology (acquisition completed April 2026).
- **Atoms Food (ProFood)**: Robotics for better food. Automated kitchen systems that deliver consistent, affordable meals at scale; kitchen infrastructure platforms (bringing orders, delivery, operations into one platform); food real estate; Lab37 (an operating system for food facilities); and a forthcoming “built” meals brand.
- **Lab37**: The operating system/software layer that connects and orchestrates Atoms’ physical automation across domains.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – Not publicly disclosed; previously raised significant capital as City Storage Systems/CloudKitchens (estimated at over $1B in prior rounds); 414 employees on LinkedIn as of mid-2026
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Travis Kalanick (founder/CEO, previously co-founded Uber); partners include mining/quarry operators, food brands (specific names not public)
- **Growth Signals**: 414 employees (+13.2% monthly growth); operates in 24 countries; 26 active job postings (+160% monthly); recent acquisition of Pronto AI (April 2026); rebranding from City Storage Systems to Atoms (March 2026) signals strategic consolidation and pivot; hiring across robotics, AI, software, hardware, operations globally

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cross-stack vertical integration**: Controls sensors, compute, software, manufacturing, operations, real estate, energy, and infrastructure — a rare “full-stack” approach to physical AI.
- **Founder advantage**: Led by Travis Kalanick (Uber co-founder) who has deep experience scaling category-defining companies and attracting top engineering/operations talent.
- **Real-world deployment**: Robots with “real jobs” — not lab demos — deployed in working mines, kitchens, and transport systems today.
- **Engineering culture**: Emphasis on “cross-stack competence,” ownership, and solving problems “most companies won’t attempt.”
- **Global footprint**: Presence in 24 countries allows rapid deployment and operations at scale.

## Strategic Focus
- Consolidating formerly separate brands (CloudKitchens, ProFood, Pronto AI) under one unified “Atoms” identity to create a single physical AI platform
- Expanding autonomous mining haulage into more quarries and mines globally
- Scaling food automation from kitchen robotics to end-to-end food infrastructure (real estate, ordering, delivery, operations)
- Growing AI, ML, and autonomy capabilities (hiring Senior Software Engineer - ML Infrastructure, Backend Infrastructure, Robotics Engineer)
- International expansion with dedicated regional roles (APAC, LATAM, Europe)

## Why Work Here
- **High ownership**: “Take ownership early, and contribute from day one” — interns and new hires work on live products, not side projects.
- **Hard problems**: Solving physical-world automation challenges that most companies won’t attempt — mining, logistics, food production at scale.
- **Compensation**: “Outsized rewards for outsized performance” — competitive compensation, healthcare, benefits, and PTO.
- **Culture**: “Builders” and “hardcore engineers” who have scaled category-defining companies — a relentless, high-expectation environment focused on excellence.
- **Work policy**: Mix of in-office roles (Mountain View, CA; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Austin, TX) and international locations (Vilnius, LTU; Makati, PH; Bogotá, COL; São Paulo, BRA). Remote/hybrid policy not explicitly stated but many roles list specific city locations.
- **Tech stack**: Modern — Python, TypeScript, Go, Java, Kubernetes, Docker, PostgreSQL, Redis, GraphQL, gRPC, Bazel, Google Cloud, NVIDIA, dbt, Looker, Airflow.
- **Team composition**: 25% of employees in technical roles (154 people); strong presence of HR, legal, finance, and operations supporting global scale; talent sourced from CloudKitchens, Amazon, Uber, Google, ProFood Properties, City Storage Systems.

## Sources
1. [atoms.co](https://atoms.co/)
2. [atoms.co/careers](https://atoms.co/careers)
3. [atoms.co/openroles](https://atoms.co/openroles)
4. [LinkedIn – Atoms](https://www.linkedin.com/company/atomsco)
5. [Greenhouse – Atoms Jobs](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/cssmerge)

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