Fraud Strategy Senior Analyst

Vanguard; Malvern (Chester County); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Health and wellness care

Work-life balance

Visa sponsorship

Job summary

Vanguard in Malvern is seeking a fraud strategy professional to own and optimize rules across debit and real-time payment channels. You will lead end-to-end real-time decisioning, manage thresholds, and tune controls with engineering and product partners to balance security and customer experience.

The role requires deep domain expertise in real-time payments fraud, strong analytics, and the ability to translate insights into measurable improvements in fraud loss and false positives.

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years in fraud risk, payments risk, or financial crimes.
• Expertise in card fraud strategy for issuers or merchants and real-time payments.
• Experience owning and optimizing real-time fraud decisioning rules and strategies.
• Ability to translate fraud strategy into rules engine changes with partners.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; graduate degree preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own fraud strategy and rule coverage across debit and real-time channels.
• Manage real-time decisioning rules, thresholds, queues, and logic.
• Enhance rules engine capabilities with engineering partners.
• Optimize performance, reduce fraud loss and false positives.
• Analyze performance data to identify rule opportunities and improvements.
• Collaborate with product, engineering, risk, and operations to execute strategy.
• Communicate results and trade-offs clearly to stakeholders.
• Maintain governance, testing evidence, and regulatory compliance.

Skills

Fraud strategy

Real-time decisioning

Rules engines

Data analysis

Strategic communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's in Statistics/Math/Data Science

Graduate degree preferred

Tools

Python

R

SQL

SAS

Tableau

Power BI

Job description

We are seeking a fraud strategy professional to own, manage, and continuously optimize fraud rules and controls across debit cards, ACH-like products, and real-time payment rails (e.g., Zelle, RTP, Bill Pay). The senior analyst will be responsible for the end-to-end real-time decisioning ecosystem—including fraud rules, detection logic, risk assessments, control performance, and customer experience trade-offs—while partnering with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Operations to implement scalable, modern fraud prevention solutions. The ideal candidate brings domain expertise in debit and real-time payments fraud, strong technical acumen in rules engines and analytics, and a proven ability to translate performance insights into rule enhancements, control tuning, and measurable fraud loss and false-positive improvements.

Global Risk and Security (GR&S) at Vanguard enables business strategy, protects client and Vanguard interests (e.g., assets and data), and stewards a strong risk culture. Our teams leverage enterprise-wide insights, deep expertise, and trusted advice so that across Vanguard leaders and crew drive faster, stronger, risk-informed decisions.

Within GR&S, the Enterprise Security and Fraud (ES&F) sub-division is responsible for the global protection of Vanguard crew, property, data, and client assets. We are the trusted advisors that protect the pride of Vanguard with state-of-the-art security and fraud capabilities. We are a world-class destination of highly engaged, passionate, and diverse talent expected to continuously learn and develop in an ever-changing security landscape.

Our crew are our greatest resource – by joining our team you will build collaborative long-term relationships and enjoy a suite of benefits that includes comprehensive health and wellness care, work-life balance, and an investment in your future at its core.

Key Responsibilities

• Own Fraud Strategy & Rule Coverage: Define and maintain fraud rule strategies across debit and real-time payment channels, including control coverage, decision logic, risk appetite alignment, and strategy documentation.
• Manage Real-Time Decisioning Rules: Build, test, deploy, and maintain fraud rules, thresholds, queues, and decision logic within real-time decisioning platforms.
• Enhance Rules Engine Capabilities: Translate fraud strategy requirements into rules engine enhancements, decisioning capabilities, data inputs, and operational workflows in partnership with engineering.
• Optimize Performance Outcomes: Continuously monitor rule performance and optimize detection effectiveness, fraud loss prevention, false positives, manual review volume, and client friction through disciplined tuning.
• Analyze Performance & Identify Rule Opportunities: Use transaction data, model outputs, case outcomes, and fraud trends to identify strategy gaps, refine segmentation, and recommend rule changes.
• Partner on Strategy Execution: Work with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Operations to implement fraud rules, validate control impacts, and ensure strategies operate effectively within customer journeys and new product launches.
• Communicate Strategy Performance: Summarize fraud trends, rule performance, optimization results, and customer experience trade-offs in clear, data-driven narratives.
• Ensure Strong Governance: Maintain disciplined rule governance, change controls, testing evidence, performance monitoring, and adherence to risk and regulatory standards.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• 5-8+ years in fraud risk, payments risk, or financial crimes
• Deep expertise in: Card fraud strategy (CNP and CP) for card issuers or merchants, as well as knowledge of Real-time payments (Zelle, RTP, P2P, Bill Pay and other emerging payments)
• Proven experience owning and optimizing real-time fraud decisioning rules, thresholds, and strategies
• Experience translating fraud strategy requirements into rules engine changes in partnership with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Operations
• Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Finance, Computer Science, or a related field. Graduate degree preferred.

Technical & Analytical Skills

• Expertise in fraud rules engines / decisioning platforms
• Strong analytical capabilities in segmentation, rule performance measurement, A/B or champion/challenger testing, and optimization
• Working knowledge of fraud models / machine learning concepts and model governance
• Ability to translate data into actionable fraud rule changes, strategy recommendations, and measurable performance improvements
• Strong experience with analytical tools such as Python, R, SAS, SQL, and platforms such as Tableau or Power BI.

Strategy Communication & Collaboration

• Ability to explain rule strategy, optimization rationale, performance results, and risk trade-offs to business and technical partners
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for documenting strategy changes, testing outcomes, and performance insights
• Collaborative approach to aligning rule changes with operational readiness, product requirements, and risk governance expectations

Special Factors

Sponsorship Vanguard is offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission—we're on a mission. To work for the long-term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our clients' lives. To learn and develop our skills as individuals and as a team. From Malvern to Melbourne, our mission drives us forward and inspires us to be our best.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.