{"id":2818770,"url":"https://alion.io/job/forward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations","title":"Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations","company":{"id":456093,"name":"Forward","domain":"getfwd.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/getfwd","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":null},"role":"Administrative","role_family":"Administrative","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Austin, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":59000,"max_usd":118000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":1667},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"SLI/SLO/SLA","optional":false},{"name":"SQL","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-18T14:55:09Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-18","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T04:30:59Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"The Role\nForward is one of the fastest growing embedded finance companies in the US - launching exciting new products that accelerate how businesses operate. \nWe need a Senior Manager, Risk & Compliance Operations, someone who owns both the operational cadence that keeps the three Onboarding, Transaction Monitoring, and Merchant Maintenance pods running smoothly and the governance frameworks that make human judgment scale. \nYou will:\nRun the weekly ops rhythm across Onboarding, Transaction Monitoring, and Merchant Maintenance pods: cadence, SLAs, escalation triage, cross-pod handoffs\nDesign and own the control framework that backs up operational discipline: Risk Appetite Statement, Delegation of Authority, Control Inventory, L2 Governance\nBuild policy as a living operational tool, not a checkbox: Risk Assessment, Underwriting, Sanctions, Merchant Termination policies that the ops team follows\nEstablish partner and merchant risk assessment \nPartner with the pod leads on risk judgment and policy interpretation. You are the operational anchor they escalate to.\nYou make the strategic frameworks operational and the operational team disciplined.\nWhat You'll Own\nOperational Cadence & SLA Management\nOwn the RCO weekly rhythm: scheduled standup across three pods, escalation triage, decision log, blockers surfaced to Leadership.\nSet and track pod-level SLAs: time to first touch, case resolution cycles, dispute response time, payout cycles. Flag when pods are out of SLA and escalate root cause to Leadership.\n Lead escalation triage: when a case doesn't fit a pod's workflow (fraud incident, high-risk merchant, regulatory escalation), determine ownership, timeline, and approval chain\nCoordinate cross-pod handoffs: Onboarding to TM to Merchant Maintenance flows; ensure no merchant falls through the cracks between pods\nBuild and maintain case routing logic: which cases go to which pod, when, and under what conditions. It evolves as the business scales.\nControl Framework Design & Implementation\n Own the Risk Appetite Statement: define Forward's risk thresholds (acceptable fraud loss rate, decline rate, chargeback rate, AML false positive rate) with Leadership and Finance; operationalize them as SLAs the pods follow\n Build the Delegation of Authority (DOA) Matrix: tier-by-tier approval authorities for merchant boarding (by size, risk, industry), limit exceptions, high-risk overrides, and settlement decisions; ensure segregation of duties\nComplete and maintain the Control Inventory: currently 60 to 75% built. Finish the gap, document each control, map to risk categories and regulatory requirements, and establish testing cadences.\nLead the L2 Governance Framework deployment: the dual-control review layer now shipping for automated decisioning at scale. Own the policy layer, threshold tuning, escalation matrix, and integration with the decisioning engine.\nEstablish standing audit management: PCI, sponsor bank, and network audits currently scramble for evidence under deadline. Build continuous audit evidence and a control testing calendar.\nPolicy Ownership & Documentation\n Own core operational policies as living documents:\nRisk Assessment Policy (merchant tiering, boarding criteria, EDD triggers)\nUnderwriting Policy (approve, decline, or conditional decision-making)\nSanctions and KYC/KYB Policy (compliance execution)\nMerchant Termination Policy (escalation, conditions, offboarding)\nIncident Response Policy (fraud outbreaks, regulatory notifications, SARs)\nEnsure policies are enforced: policies only work if the team follows them. Flag gaps when they appear, own remediation, and align pod leads on policy interpretation.\nBuild policy as a scaling lever: as acquiring volume scales 3x, policy governs merchant risk tiering, real-time monitoring thresholds, chargeback and dispute handling, network escalation, and merchant suspension procedures\nPartner & Merchant Risk Assessment\nStand up a repeatable partner risk assessment process: Forward has handled complex partner decisions ad hoc. Document a standardized Partner Risk Classification Framework, assessment checklist, and escalation path.\nOwn merchant risk classification: maintain the risk scoring methodology, tier definitions, and triggers for Enhanced Due Diligence, conditions, or termination. Keep scoring consistent and validated.\nLead high-risk merchant oversight: when a merchant crosses a risk threshold, own the escalation decision and represent Risk's position in business discussions about continued boarding or processing\nFraud & Incident Response\n Establish fraud governance: define acceptable loss rate thresholds and incident response procedures for fraud outbreaks (organized networks, account takeover campaigns)\nPartner on transaction monitoring tuning: work with the Data Scientist and the TM pod to design and validate TM rules, tune false positive rates, and make sure alerts surface appropriately\n Manage fraud incidents: lead investigation, containment, and remediation of significant fraud events, and ensure regulatory notification requirements (SARs) are met\nPod Lead Partnership\nBe the operational anchor for pod leads: The pod leads escalate judgment calls, process questions, and policy interpretation to you\nAlign on risk judgment: when a pod lead is unsure whether a high-risk merchant should be conditionally approved or declined, help them reason through the decision using the control framework\nDrive cross-pod consistency: three independent pods can drift toward three risk philosophies. Enforce consistency through policy, cadence, and escalation discipline.\n\nRequired Qualifications\n 5+ years in risk operations, fraud operations, or compliance operations at a fintech, payments, or banking organization, with direct experience building operational discipline (SLAs, escalation matrices, control frameworks) from a partial or immature state\nDeep knowledge of payments and risk: KYC/KYB, transaction monitoring, AML/BSA, chargeback and dispute processes, merchant risk tiering, network program rules\nControl framework experience: documented experience building or operating a risk appetite statement, control inventory, DOA matrix, or L2 governance framework\nLeadership as a service: comfortable leading through process, policy, and cadence rather than hands-on execution; able to mentor others on judgment calls without doing the work yourself\nData-literate: comfortable reading risk dashboards, SLA reports, loss reports, and SQL queries; can spot anomalies that signal emerging risk\n Communication: clear written and oral communication for internal audiences (exec team, board, pod leads) and external audiences (auditors, regulators)\nOperational rigor: you build systems that work consistently. SLAs are not aspirational, escalation paths are predictable, and policy is enforced.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience at a scale payments provider \nPrior fraud or incident command experience: led or co-led investigation and remediation of fraud outbreaks or significant operational incidents\nExperience building or scaling operational systems: moved from ad hoc to repeatable process, and built playbooks that actually get followed\nFinancial crime background: fraud, money laundering, account takeover, and designing controls that catch organized schemes early\nBanking or embedded finance exposure: deposit account operations or consumer protection rules\nWhat We Offer\nCompetitive salary and equity package.\nComprehensive health, dental, and vision benefits.\nFlexible work arrangements and generous PTO.\nLearning & development budget for conferences, courses, and certifications.\nThe opportunity to define the ML architecture and model governance standard at a payments company scaling 45x - building from rules-based to model-driven decisioning across merchant risk, real-time transaction fraud, and AML.\nLocation\nAustin, TX","description_format":"text","description_chars":7864,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Flexible schedule"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Financial Software & Embedded Finance","Payment Processing & Gateways"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-18T15:32:35Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 2 · green card filings: 1","filings_12m":2,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":1,"median_offered_wage_usd":109167,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":27,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/forward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/forward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-21T07:17:22Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":10311,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":456093},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=456093"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fforward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fforward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fforward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/forward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fforward-senior-manager-risk-compliance-operations"}]}