Senior Risk & Compliance Ops Leader — Flexible PTO & Equity

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

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.