Fraud Strategy Specialist - Card Issuance

Félix; Miami (FL); Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Initial stock options grant

Annual performance bonus

401(k)

Remote work model

Health, dental, vision plans

Learning opportunities

Unlimited PTO

Paid parental leave

Growth opportunities

Job summary

Félix is building a fraud strategy team to own end-to-end authorization decisioning for card issuance, including 3DS/SCA, velocity controls, and dispute handling. You will size fraud exposure with SQL/BigQuery, partner with Product and Engineering to embed controls, and maintain health against card-network thresholds across LATAM+ US markets.

We value strong cross-functional collaboration, English proficiency, and hands-on experience in 0-to-1 fintech programs.

Qualifications

• 4-7+ years in fraud/risk strategy with hands-on experience in card authorization decisioning.
• Experience with card networks (Visa VAMP, Mastercard programs) and dispute handling.
• Experience evaluating BaaS/card-issuing vendors and vendor negotiations.
• Advanced SQL skills for sizing risk and backtesting thresholds.
• Bias toward product-focused fraud controls over static rules.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity on a 0-to-1 program.
• Strong cross-functional communication across Fraud, Product, Compliance, and vendors.
• Excellent English communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own fraud strategy for the card issuance program end-to-end from pre-launch to steady-state monitoring.
• Translate vendor responsibilities into an operating decisioning model with controls.
• Design and own authorization decisioning for card transactions including 3DS/SCA, velocity, and linkage.
• Monitor fraud health against network thresholds and build early-warning systems.
• Develop the cardholder fraud lifecycle from onboarding to first-card-use monitoring.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to embed controls into flows.
• Own dispute and chargeback strategy with the Fraud Operations team.
• Engage with current and future issuing partners to refine requirements.
• Use SQL/BigQuery to size risk and backtest thresholds with real data.
• Build playbooks to enable future product/market expansions.

Skills

Fraud risk strategy

Cross-functional collaboration

Advanced English

Tools

SQL

BigQuery

Job description

About Us

At Félix, we are building the indispensable financial companion for Latinos in the US. We combine an AI-powered, conversational-first interface with real-time financial infrastructure to make cross-border money movement as easy as sending a text. Starting with fast, affordable remittances powered by AI and crypto rails, we are expanding into credit, savings, and wallet services to support the complete immigrant financial journey. Our ambition is to deliver a white-glove financial experience with the simplicity of a conversation to a community the traditional financial system has historically overlooked.

About Us

At Félix, we are building the indispensable financial companion for Latinos in the US. We combine an AI-powered, conversational-first interface with real-time financial infrastructure to make cross-border money movement as easy as sending a text. Starting with fast, affordable remittances powered by AI and crypto rails, we are expanding into credit, savings, and wallet services to support the complete immigrant financial journey. Our ambition is to deliver a white-glove financial experience with the simplicity of a conversation to a community the traditional financial system has historically overlooked. We are a hyper-growth Series C company, backed by over $300 million in funding from top-tier global investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, QED, Castle Island, Switch Ventures, HTwenty, Monashees, General Catalyst Customer Value Fund. This isn't just about the numbers; it's a testament to the trust our investors have in our vision and our team. Additionally, Félix was selected as an "Endeavour Entrepreneur" and was a recipient of the CrossTech Fintech Startups Award. Joining Félix means you will be part of a team building a legacy, a company that will outlive us all. This is a rare opportunity to apply your skills to a deeply meaningful mission- serving a community that has been underserved for too long because we are obsessed with our customers. We get things done with urgency and focus, driven by extreme ownership over our impact. We collaborate without ego, fostering radical transparency and fierce loyalty so we can grow together. Because we aim for insanely great rather than just good enough, we stay insatiably curious- always experimenting, building the future today, and delivering a product that truly makes our users' lives better.

About The Role

You'll join the Fraud Strategy team at Felix - the team responsible for how we detect, decide on, and prevent fraud across every product, payment rail, and country we operate in. We sit at the intersection of Data Science, Product, Operations, and Risk: we turn fraud signals into decisions, design the controls that stop bad actors, and make sure good customers move through with as little friction as possible. As Felix grows into new rails, new products and new markets across Latin America, our job is to let the business say yes to growth without letting fraud scale alongside it.

Felix is building a new card issuance program, and with it, a new fraud surface: we'll own authorization decisioning end-to-end and carry direct exposure to card network fraud and dispute monitoring (Visa/Mastercard-style thresholds). This is a build role - there's no existing card fraud stack to inherit, and our infrastructure partner isn't a fraud team, so the decisioning architecture gets built by this role, from the ground up.

We're looking for a Fraud Strategist to own that build: turn our vendor's area-of- responsibility split into a real decisioning architecture, keep us under network fraud and dispute thresholds from day one, and design the authorization strategy using the full toolkit - step-up authentication, velocity controls, holds, product-level friction - not rules as the default answer. Rules are a last resort here, not the first move.

Responsibilities

• Own fraud strategy for the card issuance program end-to-end - from pre-launch risk assessment through steady-state monitoring after go-live.
• Translate our infrastructure partner's area-of-responsibility split into an operating decisioning model. Card issuing infrastructure providers generally aren't fraud teams - authorization decisioning, onboarding fraud, velocity controls, and cross-account detection sit with Felix, and this role turns that into actual controls, not just a documented split.
• Design and own authorization decisioning for card transactions: approve/decline logic, 3DS/SCA step-up, velocity limits, cross-card/cross-account linkage - biased toward product and action-based controls over static rule sprawl.
• Own network-level fraud health. Monitor fraud-to-sales and dispute ratios against card network thresholds (Visa's VAMP, Mastercard's excessive chargeback program) and build the early-warning system that keeps us out of penalty territory before it's a problem, not after.
• Build the cardholder fraud lifecycle: onboarding risk, first-card-use monitoring, BIN- and portfolio-level pattern detection.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to embed controls into the card issuance and wallet funding/spend flow directly, instead of bolting rules on after the product ships.
• Own card dispute and chargeback strategy (network reason codes, representment approach) in partnership with Fraud Operations.
• Be the fraud voice in ongoing vendor conversations - our current issuing infrastructure partner and any future ones - keeping the requirements doc current as the program evolves.
• Use SQL/BigQuery hands-on to size fraud exposure, backtest authorization thresholds, and monitor post-launch indicators, iterating fast as real transaction data comes in.
• Build the playbook, not just the launch - so the next card product or market expansion plugs in without renegotiating fraud ownership from scratch.

Requirements

• 4-7+ years in fraud/risk strategy, with direct, hands-on experience in card authorization decisioning - issuer, acquirer, program manager, or processor side.
• Working knowledge of card network mechanics: authorization/clearing/settlement flow, 3DS/SCA, network fraud-monitoring programs (Visa VAMP or equivalent, Mastercard excessive chargeback programs), and dispute reason codes.
• Experience working with or evaluating BaaS / program-manager card issuing vendors (Stripe Issuing, Marqeta, Galileo, or similar), including fraud AoR/RACI negotiation.
• Advanced SQL. This person needs to independently query and size risk, not route it to an analyst.
• Demonstrated bias toward product and action-based fraud controls (step-up auth, holds, dynamic friction) over rules as the default fix.
• Comfortable building in ambiguity on a 0-to-1 program - translating vendor documentation, legal, and compliance input into an actual operating model.
• Strong cross-functional communication; this role sits at the intersection of Fraud, Product, Compliance, and an external vendor.
• Advanced English.

Nice to Have

• Prior experience specifically with card issuing at a fintech or program manager (rather than acquiring-side or card-not-present e-commerce fraud only).
• Familiarity with stablecoin-backed card programs or general crypto experience.
• Spanish or Portuguese, given the LATAM corridor focus.
• Background in cross-border remittance or LATAM-market fraud.
• Experience negotiating or managing a BIN sponsor / issuing bank relationship.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary
• Initial stock options grant
• Annual performance bonus
• 401(k)
• Work model: currently fully remote, with a future transition to a hybrid set up
• Health, dental, and vision plans
• Continuous learning opportunities
• Unlimited PTO
• Paid parental leave
• Empowering opportunities for growth in a dynamic entrepreneurial environment

Equal Opportunity Employer

At Félix, we are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or disability. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, training, compensation, benefits, and termination.

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