AVP, Authentication Analytics & Strategy

Synchrony•Cincinnati, OH

1d•$90,000 - $155,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The AVP, Authentication Analytics & Strategy is responsible for leading data-driven strategy development for customer authentication across digital channels. This role drives measurable reductions in fraud and account takeover risk while improving customer experience through optimized authentication journeys, experimentation, and performance management. The AVP partners cross-functionally with product, technology, fraud strategy, and compliance stakeholders to translate insights into scalable roadmaps, policies, and operational controls.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience building analytically derived strategies within Credit, Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services, or in lieu of a Bachelor's degree, 9+ years of experience building analytically derived strategies in Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services.
3+ years of experience working with statistical tools such as SAS, Python, Tableau.
Expert level proficiency with Excel
3+ years of experience in retail, business, installment loans, or private label credit.
Excellent temperament and ability to work through uncertainty, collaborate respectfully across functions & teams, and find solutions to issues
Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required
You must be 18 years or older
You must have a high school diploma or equivalent
You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process
You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required.
We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening.

Nice To Haves

7+ years of experience in analytics, strategy, fraud risk, authentication, identity, cybersecurity, or digital product analytics within financial services, payments, fintech, or e-commerce
Proven track record of developing strategy and driving measurable outcomes across risk reduction and customer experience improvements
Strong analytical skillset: SQL proficiency; experience with Python/R preferred; ability to define metrics, build data stories, and perform root-cause analysis
Experience with experimentation/measurement frameworks: A/B testing, test design, lift measurement, causal inference basics, and KPI governance
Knowledge of authentication and fraud patterns: MFA/2FA, OTP, biometrics, device intelligence, behavioral analytics, bot/automation defenses, credential stuffing, and ATO typologies
Executive communication skills: ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment across competing priorities

Responsibilities

Define target-state authentication journeys (friction-right) and decisioning frameworks (risk-based, adaptive authentication) across all customer touchpoints
Translate business objectives into measurable OKRs/KPIs, and establish governance cadence (monthly/quarterly reviews) to track progress and ROI
Identify and prioritize high-impact opportunities across policy tuning, signal enrichment, model enhancements, vendor capabilities, and platform modernization
Create executive-ready narratives and recommendations supported by data, trade-off analysis, and implementation feasibility
Conduct deep dives on key events (ATO spikes, bot activity, credential stuffing, SIM swap indicators, device compromise), and recommend control improvements
Partner with data science/engineering to define data requirements, instrumentation, and feature availability to improve decisioning effectiveness
Quantify customer impact and financial benefits: loss avoidance, operational savings, digital conversion uplift, and customer satisfaction improvements
Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned