Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations

Forward; Texas; On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Forward is a fast-growing embedded finance company in the US. We seek a Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations to own the weekly cadence across Onboarding, Transaction Monitoring, and Merchant Maintenance pods, and to design governance frameworks that scale human judgment.

You will develop risk policies, bound operations with DOA and SLA metrics, and drive enterprise-wide risk decisions. The role requires building repeatable risk assessments, policy ownership, and cross-team collaboration

Responsibilities

• 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 elevate to.
• You make the strategic frameworks operational and the operational team disciplined.

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 elevate to.
• 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 escalation 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, cont