Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations
Texas·Posted today
fintechgo
<h2><strong>The Role</strong></h2> <p>Forward is one of the fastest growing embedded finance companies in the US - launching exciting new products that accelerate how businesses operate. </p> <p>We need a <strong>Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations</strong>, someone who owns <strong>both</strong> the operational cadence that keeps the three Onboarding, Transaction Monitoring, and Merchant Maintenance pods running smoothly <strong>and</strong> the governance frameworks that make human judgment scale. </p> <p>You will:</p> <ul> <li>Run the weekly ops rhythm across Onboarding, Transaction Monitoring, and Merchant Maintenance pods: cadence, SLAs, escalation triage, cross-pod handoffs</li> <li>Design and own the control framework that backs up operational discipline: Risk Appetite Statement, Delegation of Authority, Control Inventory, L2 Governance</li> <li>Build policy as a living operational tool, not a checkbox: Risk Assessment, Underwriting, Sanctions, Merchant Termination policies that the ops team follows</li> <li>Establish partner and merchant risk assessment </li> <li>Partner with the pod leads on risk judgment and policy interpretation. You are the operational anchor they escalate to.</li> </ul> <p>You make the strategic frameworks operational and the operational team disciplined.</p> <h2><strong>What You'll Own</strong></h2> <h3><strong>Operational Cadence & SLA Management</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Own the RCO weekly rhythm:</strong> scheduled standup across three pods, escalation triage, decision log, blockers surfaced to Leadership.</li> <li><strong>Set and track pod-level SLAs:</strong> time to first touch, case resolution cycles, dispute response time, payout cycles. Flag when pods are out of SLA and escalate root cause to Leadership.</li> <li><strong>Lead escalation triage:</strong> when a case doesn't fit a pod's workflow (fraud incident, high-risk merchant, regulatory escalation), determine ownership, timeline, and approval chain</li> <li><strong>Coordinate cross-pod handoffs:</strong> Onboarding to TM to Merchant Maintenance flows; ensure no merchant falls through the cracks between pods</li> <li><strong>Build and maintain case routing logic:</strong> which cases go to which pod, when, and under what conditions. It evolves as the business scales.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Control Framework Design & Implementation</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Own the Risk Appetite Statement:</strong> define Forward's risk thresholds (acceptable fraud loss rate, decline rate, chargeback rate, AML false positive rate) with Leadership and Finance; operationalize them as SLAs the pods follow</li> <li><strong>Build the Delegation of Authority (DOA) Matrix:</strong> tier-by-tier approval authorities for merchant boarding (by size, risk, industry), limit exceptions, high-risk overrides, and settlement decisions; ensure segregation of duties</li> <li><strong>Complete and maintain the Control Inventory:</strong> currently 60 to 75% built. Finish the gap, document each control, map to risk categories and regulatory requirements, and establish testing cadences.</li> <li><strong>Lead the L2 Governance Framework deployment:</strong> the dual-control review layer now shipping for automated decisioning at scale. Own the policy layer, threshold tuning, escalation matrix, and integration with the decisioning engine.</li> <li><strong>Establish standing audit management:</strong> PCI, sponsor bank, and network audits currently scramble for evidence under deadline. Build continuous audit evidence and a control testing calendar.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Policy Ownership & Documentation</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Own core operational policies as living documents:</strong></li> </ul> <ul> <li>Risk Assessment Policy (merchant tiering, boarding criteria, EDD triggers)</li> <li>Underwriting Policy (approve, decline, or conditional decision-making)</li> <li>Sanctions and KYC/KYB Policy (compliance execution)</li> <li>Merchant Termination Policy (escalation, conditions, offboarding)</li> <li>Incident Response Policy (fraud outbreaks, regulatory notifications, SARs)</li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Ensure policies are enforced:</strong> policies only work if the team follows them. Flag gaps when they appear, own remediation, and align pod leads on policy interpretation.</li> <li><strong>Build policy as a scaling lever:</strong> as acquiring volume scales 3x, policy governs merchant risk tiering, real-time monitoring thresholds, chargeback and dispute handling, network escalation, and merchant suspension procedures</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Partner & Merchant Risk Assessment</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Stand up a repeatable partner risk assessment process:</strong> Forward has handled complex partner decisions ad hoc. Document a standardized Partner Risk Classification Framework, assessment checklist, and escalation path.</li> <li><strong>Own merchant risk classification:</strong> maintain the risk scoring methodology, tier definitions, and triggers for Enhanced Due Diligence, conditions, or termination. Keep scoring consistent and validated.</li> <li><strong>Lead high-risk merchant oversight:</strong> when a merchant crosses a risk threshold, own the escalation decision and represent Risk's position in business discussions about continued boarding or processing</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Fraud & Incident Response</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Establish fraud governance:</strong> define acceptable loss rate thresholds and incident response procedures for fraud outbreaks (organized networks, account takeover campaigns)</li> <li><strong>Partner on transaction monitoring tuning:</strong> work with the Data Scientist and the TM pod to design and validate TM rules, tune false positive rates, and make sure alerts surface appropriately</li> <li><strong>Manage fraud incidents:</strong> lead investigation, containment, and remediation of significant fraud events, and ensure regulatory notification requirements (SARs) are met</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Pod Lead Partnership</strong></h3> <ul> <li><strong>Be the operational anchor for pod leads:</strong> The pod leads escalate judgment calls, process questions, and policy interpretation to you</li> <li><strong>Align on risk judgment:</strong> when a pod lead is unsure whether a high-risk merchant should be conditionally approved or declined, help them reason through the decision using the control framework</li> <li><strong>Drive cross-pod consistency:</strong> three independent pods can drift toward three risk philosophies. Enforce consistency through policy, cadence, and escalation discipline.</li> </ul> <h2> </h2> <h2><strong>Required Qualifications</strong></h2> <ul> <li><strong>5+ years</strong> in risk operations, fraud operations, or compliance operations at a fintech, payments, or banking organization, with direct experience building operational discipline (SLAs, escalation matrices, control frameworks) from a partial or immature state</li> <li><strong>Deep knowledge of payments and risk:</strong> KYC/KYB, transaction monitoring, AML/BSA, chargeback and dispute processes, merchant risk tiering, network program rules</li> <li><strong>Control framework experience:</strong> documented experience building or operating a risk appetite statement, control inventory, DOA matrix, or L2 governance framework</li> <li><strong>Leadership as a service:</strong> comfortable leading through process, policy, and cadence rather than hands-on execution; able to mentor others on judgment calls without doing the work yourself</li> <li><strong>Data-literate:</strong> comfortable reading risk dashboards, SLA reports, loss reports, and SQL queries; can spot anomalies that signal emerging risk</li> <li><strong>Communication:</strong> clear written and oral communication for internal audiences (exec team, board, pod leads) and external audiences (auditors, regulators)</li> <li><strong>Operational rigor:</strong> you build systems that work consistently. SLAs are not aspirational, escalation paths are predictable, and policy is enforced.</li> </ul> <h2><strong>Preferred Qualifications</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Experience at a scale payments provider </li> <li>Prior fraud or incident command experience: led or co-led investigation and remediation of fraud outbreaks or significant operational incidents</li> <li>Experience building or scaling operational systems: moved from ad hoc to repeatable process, and built playbooks that actually get followed</li> <li>Financial crime background: fraud, money laundering, account takeover, and designing controls that catch organized schemes early</li> <li>Banking or embedded finance exposure: deposit account operations or consumer protection rules</li> </ul> <h2><strong>What We Offer</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Competitive salary and equity package.</li> <li>Comprehensive health, dental, and vision benefits.</li> <li>Flexible work arrangements and generous PTO.</li> <li>Learning & development budget for conferences, courses, and certifications.</li> <li>The opportunity to define the ML architecture and model governance standard at a payments company scaling 45x - building from rules-based to model-driven decisioning across merchant risk, real-time transaction fraud, and AML.</li> </ul> <h2>Location</h2> <p>Austin, TX</p>