Fraud Strategy Manager

Cardless•San Francisco, CA

2d•$150,000 - $210,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Cardless is hiring a Fraud Strategy Manager to lead transaction evaluation and response strategy across its credit card portfolio. This analytical, strategy-focused role helps protect cardholders and manage fraud losses while preserving a smooth experience for legitimate customers. The role reports to the Chief Risk Officer and works closely with data science, product, engineering, compliance, legal, operations, and network partners. The position is based in San Francisco, with at least three days per week in the office. The manager will shape transaction decisioning, account takeover and payment controls, and responses to coordinated fraud events. The role includes developing approval, decline, and step-up policies; designing controls for compromised credentials and sensitive account changes; setting strategies for ACH and balance-transfer payment holds; monitoring and responding to fraud events; and measuring portfolio performance. The manager will translate strategy into system requirements, ensure controls align with applicable regulations and network rules, and support dispute and account-takeover recovery workflows. The annual starting salary range is $150,000–$210,000, plus equity. Actual compensation depends on factors including skills, experience, and work location.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience in transaction fraud strategy at a card issuer, fintech, payments network, or financial institution.
Experience with transaction fraud decisioning across card-not-present, card-present, account takeover, payment fraud, and coordinated fraud events.
Working knowledge of Visa, Mastercard, or Amex network rules, including authorization, chargebacks, disputes, and fraud monitoring programs.
Familiarity with payment-hold strategy and funding fraud patterns, including ACH returns, payment reversals, and bust-out behavior.
SQL skills and experience using data to build, evaluate, and tune fraud rules and models.
Clear communication skills, including the ability to explain fraud tradeoffs and recommendations to executives, network partners, and compliance teams.
Collaborative, proactive approach; comfort acting on incomplete information, asking questions, and bringing teams together around decisions.

Responsibilities

Lead the framework for approve, decline, and step-up transaction decisions across Cardless-issued cards, balancing fraud prevention, authorization rates, and cardholder experience.
Partner with data science to turn model scores into thresholds, segmentation, and policy.
Design detection and authentication controls for credential compromise, SIM swaps, social engineering, and sensitive account changes, while maintaining easy self-service for legitimate cardholders.
Set the strategy for placing and releasing holds on ACH payments and balance transfers; detect funding fraud and bust-out behavior; and define customer timelines and communications.
Build real-time monitoring and response plans for BIN attacks, merchant compromises, and fraud rings; coordinate responses with operations, product, and network partners; and lead post-event reviews.
Define fraud KPIs, including fraud, false-positive, decline, account-takeover, and chargeback rates; run portfolio reviews; and build reporting to support timely policy updates.
Translate strategy into system requirements with product and engineering.
Work with compliance and legal to ensure controls meet Reg E, Reg Z, network rules, and UDAAP requirements.
Support dispute and account-takeover recovery workflows with customer operations.