Senior Risk Program Manager - Fraud & Disputes Enablement

Risk Hub; San Francisco, New York, Portland (CA, NY, OR); Hybrid; USD 154,000 - 193,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercury is building a complete financial stack for startups. This generalist program management role leads Bank Charter Readiness across Fraud, Disputes, and Risk UX, running operating reviews and tracking goals to show leadership how these areas perform.

You will collaborate with Risk Operations, Compliance, Risk Product, Engineering, Risk Strategy, and Vendor Management while leveraging AI to work smarter.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of program management experience in risk, compliance, fraud, disputes, or operations at a bank, fintech, or other regulated financial services company.
• Banking experience, with working knowledge of how a regulated institution runs, and direct experience working with regulators, examiners, auditors, or sponsor banks (for example exam preparation, findings remediation, or regulatory responses).
• A record of building programs from zero to one, from ambiguous problem to measurable result, with impact beyond your immediate team.
• 2+ years of experience governing BPO or other outsourced operations, with a focus on governance: SLAs, performance and quality oversight, escalations, and regular business reviews.
• Strong understanding of risk operational processes in Fraud and/or Disputes, such as case handling, investigations, chargebacks, or Reg E error resolution.
• Comfort with data: you can define metrics, build or interpret dashboards, and explain what the numbers mean.
• Experience using AI and automation to improve how work gets done, for example synthesizing evidence and documentation, drafting and maintaining SOPs, analyzing QC and vendor data, summarizing incidents, and automating status reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead Bank Charter Readiness: Translate regulatory expectations into clear, sequenced work plans; build programs from zero to one; keep teams audit-ready with current SOPs and defensible evidence; coordinate regulator/auditor inquiries with Compliance, Legal, and Operations.
• Lead Goal tracking, and Reporting for Fraud & Disputes: Own cadence of Operational Quality Reviews and Monthly CORs; define and track ops health measures and OKRs; build dashboards and reporting from scratch; raise risks and drive decisions to closure with non-reporting partners.
• Use data for continuous improvement: Analyze quality, productivity, and compliance data to identify patterns; implement durable process, tooling, and reporting improvements; route root causes to the right teams and measure results; stand up new programs from zero to one.

Skills

Program management

Risk & compliance

Fraud & disputes operations

Data-driven decision making

AI & automation

Vendor governance

Root cause analysis

Leadership experience

Job description

About the Team

Mercury* is building a complete financial stack for startups, and Risk is how we protect our customers, Mercury, and the broader financial ecosystem. You'll join the Fraud & Disputes Enablement team, a shared-services group that makes our operations teams faster, more consistent, and ready for scrutiny. The team is made up of Quality Control, Learning & Development, and Program Management, and supports Fraud & Disputes.

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Role Summary

This is a generalist program management role for someone who builds programs from zero to one. You'll lead Mercury's Bank Charter Readiness work across Fraud, Disputes, and Risk UX, run the operating reviews and goal tracking that show leaders how Fraud and Disputes are performing, and use data to drive continuous improvement. You'll work with Risk Operations, Compliance, Risk Product, Engineering, Risk Strategy, and Vendor Management, and you'll show the team how AI can help us work smarter, not harder.

What You'll Do

Lead Bank Charter Readiness

• Translate the regulatory expectations of a chartered bank (Reg E, card network rules, and the standards examiners apply) into clear, sequenced work plans owned by the right teams.
• Build Bank Charter Readiness programs from zero to one: define scope, milestones, dependencies, and risks, and report progress to executives.
• Keep teams audit-ready every day, with current SOPs, traceable decisions, defensible evidence, and clean documentation, so exam preparation never becomes a scramble.
• Coordinate responses to regulator, auditor, and partner-bank inquiries with Compliance, Legal, and Operations.

Lead Goal tracking, and Reporting for Fraud & Disputes

• Own the cadence and content of Operational Quality Reviews and Monthly CORs Reviews for Fraud and Disputes, from the data pull to the narrative to the follow-up actions.
• Define and track ops health measures and team goals, including OKRs, so leaders can see what is on track, what is at risk, and why.
• Build the reporting and dashboards leaders use to make decisions, and set up new reporting from scratch where none exists.
• Raise risks early, make trade-offs explicit, and drive decisions to closure with partners who don't report to you.

Use data for continuous improvement

• Analyze quality, productivity, and compliance data across Fraud, Disputes, and Risk UX to find the patterns behind recurring problems.
• Turn those findings into durable process, tooling, and reporting improvements instead of one-off fixes.
• Work with QC, L&D, and Operations leaders to route root causes to the team that can fix them, and confirm the fix worked.
• Stand up new continuous improvement programs from zero to one and measure their results.

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of program management experience in risk, compliance, fraud, disputes, or operations at a bank, fintech, or other regulated financial services company.
• Banking* experience, with working knowledge of how a regulated institution runs, and direct experience working with regulators, examiners, auditors, or sponsor banks (for example exam preparation, findings remediation, or regulatory responses).
• A record of building programs from zero to one, from ambiguous problem to measurable result, with impact beyond your immediate team.
• 2+ years of experience governing BPO or other outsourced operations, with a focus on governance: SLAs, performance and quality oversight, escalations, and regular business reviews.
• Strong understanding of risk operational processes in Fraud and/or Disputes, such as case handling, investigations, chargebacks, or Reg E error resolution.
• Comfort with data: you can define metrics, build or interpret dashboards, and explain what the numbers mean.
• Experience using AI and automation to improve how work gets done, for example synthesizing evidence and documentation, drafting and maintaining SOPs, analyzing QC and vendor data, summarizing incidents, and automating status reporting.

Nice to Haves

• Lean Six Sigma certification (Green Belt or above) or equivalent continuous improvement experience
• ISO quality credentials (for example ISO 9001 Lead Auditor or Implementer) or a similar quality management background
• PMI certification (PMP, PgMP) or equivalent
• Experience with change management frameworks such as Prosci/ADKAR, or ITIL-style incident and problem management
• Experience in QC program design, workforce management, or learning and development
• Familiarity with card network dispute rules and platforms
• Experience with Risk UX, customer-facing risk flows, in a regulated context
• Experience building and scaling a program in a high-growth environment

Mercury values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Mercury are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities or special needs. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.

Total Rewards The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits.

Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.

Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following

US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area:

$154,200—$192,800 USD

US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area:

$138,800—$173,500 USD

Canadian employees (any location)

$145,800—$182,200 CAD