Fraud Strategy Senior Manager (Debit and Payments))

Vanguard•Malvern, PA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a seasoned fraud professional to lead the strategy, execution, and continuous optimization of fraud controls across debit cards, ACH-like products, and real-time payment rails (e.g., Zelle, RTP, Bill Pay). This role will own the end-to-end real-time decisioning ecosystem—including fraud rules, detection capabilities, risk assessments, and customer experience trade-offs—while partnering cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Operations to deliver scalable, modern fraud prevention solutions. The ideal candidate brings deep domain expertise in debit and real-time payments fraud, strong technical acumen in rules engines and analytics, and a proven ability to lead teams, influence stakeholders, and communicate complex risk narratives to senior leadership.

Requirements

10 + years in fraud risk, payments risk, or financial crimes
Deep expertise in: Debit card fraud (CNP and CP)
Deep expertise in: Real-time payments (Zelle, RTP, P2P, Bill Pay and other emerging payments)
5+ years of people management experience leading high-performing teams
Proven experience managing real-time fraud decisioning environments and rules strategies
Strong experience partnering across Product, Engineering, Risk, and Operations
Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Finance, Computer Science, or a related field.
Expertise in fraud rules engines / decisioning platforms
Strong analytical capabilities (data analysis, segmentation, performance optimization)
Working knowledge of fraud models / machine learning concepts and model governance
Ability to translate data into actionable fraud strategies and business decisions
Strong experience with analytical tools such as Python, R, SAS, SQL, and platforms such as Tableau or Power BI.
Strong stakeholder management with ability to influence senior leaders
Excellent communication and executive storytelling skills
Highly collaborative with a track record of driving alignment across teams

Nice To Haves

Graduate degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Set Fraud Strategy & Coverage: Define fraud prevention strategy across debit and real-time payment channels, including risk appetite and control coverage.
Own Real-Time Decisioning: Design and manage fraud rules, decision logic, and detection strategies within real-time decisioning platforms.
Lead Platform & Capability Build: Drive enhancements and implementation of fraud rules engines and decisioning platforms in partnership with engineering.
Optimize Performance Outcomes: Monitor and improve fraud detection, false positives, and client friction through ongoing control tuning and performance management.
Leverage Data & Models: Use analytics and model insights to identify trends, refine strategies, and improve detection effectiveness.
Partner Cross-Functionally: Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Risk, and Operations to embed fraud controls into customer journeys and new product launches.
Influence Senior Stakeholders: Communicate fraud risk, performance, and trade-offs clearly through strong executive storytelling.
Lead & Develop Team: Build and manage a high-performing team of fraud strategy and analytics professionals.
Ensure Strong Governance: Maintain disciplined control testing, monitoring, and adherence to risk and regulatory standards.