Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations

Forward; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Forward, a fast-growing embedded finance company in the US, seeks a Senior Manager for Risk & Compliance Operations. You will own the operational cadence of onboarding, transaction monitoring, and merchant maintenance pods, while building and enforcing governance and policy frameworks at scale.

You will lead risk appetite discussions, DOA, and audit readiness, ensuring timely escalation and consistent risk judgments across teams. A pivotal role in policy and partner risk.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in risk operations, fraud operations, or compliance operations at fintech/payments/banking.
• Deep knowledge of payments risk (KYC/KYB, AML/BSA, disputes).
• Experience building governance, SLAs, escalation matrices.
• Ability to mentor others on judgment calls without doing the work.

Responsibilities

• Own weekly rhythm across onboarding, transaction monitoring, and merchant maintenance pods.
• Design and own control frameworks (risk appetite, DOA, control inventory, L2 governance).
• Develop and maintain policies (risk assessment, underwriting, sanctions, KYC/KYB, merchant termination).
• Lead partner and merchant risk assessment and escalation decisions.
• Partner with pod leads to interpret risk policy and ensure consistent application.

Skills

Risk operations

Fraud operations

Compliance operations

Data literacy

Communication

Leadership

SQL queries

Tools

Policy design

DOA matrix

Audit coordination

Job description

The Role

Forward is one of the fastest growing embedded finance companies in the US - launching exciting new products that accelerate how businesses operate.

We need a Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations , someone who owns both the operational cadence that keeps the three Onboarding, Transaction Monitoring, and Merchant Maintenance pods running smoothly and the governance frameworks that make human judgment scale.

You will:

• Run the weekly ops rhythm across Onboarding, Transaction Monitoring, and Merchant Maintenance pods: cadence, SLAs, escalation triage, cross-pod handoffs
• Design and own the control framework that backs up operational discipline: Risk Appetite Statement, Delegation of Authority, Control Inventory, L2 Governance
• Build policy as a living operational tool, not a checkbox: Risk Assessment, Underwriting, Sanctions, Merchant Termination policies that the ops team follows
• Establish partner and merchant risk assessment
• Partner with the pod leads on risk judgment and policy interpretation. You are the operational anchor they escal

You make the strategic frameworks operational and the operational team disciplined.

What You’ll Own

Operational Cadence & SLA Management

• Own the RCO weekly rhythm: scheduled standup across three pods, escalation triage, decision log, blockers surfaced to Leadership.
• Set and track pod-level SLAs: time to first touch, case resolution cycles, dispute response time, payout cycles. Flag when pods are out of SLA and elevate root cause to Leadership.
• Lead escalation triage: when a case doesn’t fit a pod’s workflow (fraud incident, high-risk merchant, regulatory escalation), determine ownership, timeline, and approval chain
• Coordinate cross-pod handoffs: Onboarding to TM to Merchant Maintenance flows; ensure no merchant falls through the cracks between pods
• Build and maintain case routing logic: which cases go to which pod, when, and under what conditions. It evolves as the business scales.

Control Framework Design & Implementation

• Own the Risk Appetite Statement: 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
• Build the Delegation of Authority (DOA) Matrix: tier-by-tier approval authorities for merchant boarding (by size, risk, industry), limit exceptions, high-risk overrides, and settlement decisions; ensure segregation of duties
• Complete and maintain the Control Inventory: currently 60 to 75% built. Finish the gap, document each control, map to risk categories and regulatory requirements, and establish testing cadences.
• Lead the L2 Governance Framework deployment: 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.
• Establish standing audit management: PCI, sponsor bank, and network audits currently scramble for evidence under deadline. Build continuous audit evidence and a control testing calendar.

Policy Ownership & Documentation

• Own core operational policies as living documents:

• Risk Assessment Policy (merchant tiering, boarding criteria, EDD triggers)

• Underwriting Policy (approve, decline, or conditional decision-making)

• Sanctions and KYC/KYB Policy (compliance execution)

• Merchant Termination Policy (escalation, conditions, offboarding)

• Incident Response Policy (fraud outbreaks, regulatory notifications, SARs)

• Ensure policies are enforced: policies only work if the team follows them. Flag gaps when they appear, own remediation, and align pod leads on policy interpretation.

• Build policy as a scaling lever: as acquiring volume scales 3x, policy governs merchant risk tiering, real-time monitoring thresholds, chargeback and dispute handling, network escalation, and merchant suspension procedures

Partner & Merchant Risk Assessment

• Stand up a repeatable partner risk assessment process: Forward has handled complex partner decisions ad hoc. Document a standardized Partner Risk Classification Framework, assessment checklist, and escalation path.
• Own merchant risk classification: maintain the risk scoring methodology, tier definitions, and triggers for Enhanced Due Diligence, conditions, or termination. Keep scoring consistent and validated.
• Lead high-risk merchant oversight: when a merchant crosses a risk threshold, own the escalation decision and represent Risk’s position in business discussions about continued boarding or processing

Fraud & Incident Response

• Establish fraud governance: define acceptable loss rate thresholds and incident response procedures for fraud outbreaks (organized networks, account takeover campaigns)
• Partner on transaction monitoring tuning: 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
• Manage fraud incidents: lead investigation, containment, and remediation of significant fraud events, and ensure regulatory notification requirements (SARs) are met

Pod Lead Partnership

• Be the operational anchor for pod leads: The pod leads escal
• Align on risk judgment: 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
• Drive cross-pod consistency: three independent pods can drift toward three risk philosophies. Enforce consistency through policy, cadence, and escalation discipline.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years 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
• Deep knowledge of payments and risk: KYC/KYB, transaction monitoring, AML/BSA, chargeback and dispute processes, merchant risk tiering, network program rules
• Control framework experience: documented experience building or operating a risk appetite statement, control inventory, DOA matrix, or L2 governance framework
• Leadership as a service: comfortable leading through process, policy, and cadence rather than hands-on execution; able to mentor others on judgment calls without doing the work yourself
• Data-literate: comfortable reading risk dashboards, SLA reports, loss reports, and SQL queries; can spot anomalies that signal emerging risk
• Communication: clear written and oral communication for internal audiences (exec team, board, pod leads) and external audiences (auditors, regulators)
• Operational rigor: you build systems that work consistently. SLAs are not aspirational, escalation paths are predictable, and policy is enforced.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at a scale payments provider
• Prior fraud or incident command experience: led or co-led investigation and remediation of fraud outbreaks or significant operational incidents
• Experience building or scaling operational systems: moved from ad hoc to repeatable process, and built playbooks that actually get followed
• Financial crime background: fraud, money laundering, account takeover, and designing controls that catch organized schemes early
• Banking or embedded finance exposure: deposit account operations or consumer protection rules

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and equity package.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision benefits.
• Flexible work arrangements and generous PTO.
• Learning & development budget for conferences, courses, and certifications.
• 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.

Location

Austin, TX