Fraud Strategy Analyst

About the Role

We are seeking a seasoned fraud professional to lead strategy and execution of fraud controls across Vanguard’s Workplace Solutions (VWS) business, including employer-sponsored retirement plans and participant transaction journeys. This role is accountable for protecting participant accounts, contributions, withdrawals, loans, and distribution activity through modern, real-time fraud detection and prevention capabilities. The leader will own the end-to-end decisioning ecosystem—including rules, analytics, and risk strategies—while ensuring an appropriate balance between client protection, seamless participant experience, and regulatory expectations. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in account takeover, social engineering, and transaction fraud risks within retirement and workplace channels, along with strong technical acumen in real-time decisioning platforms, analytics, and fraud models. This role requires close partnership across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Risk, and the ability to clearly communicate complex fraud risks and trade-offs to senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Support Real-Time Fraud Controls: Develop, implement, and maintain fraud rules and detection strategies for participant transactions (e.g., withdrawals, loans, distributions).
• Monitor & Optimize Performance: Analyze fraud trends, rule performance, and key metrics to improve detection rates and reduce false positives.
• Conduct Data Analysis: Perform deep-dive analyses to identify emerging fraud patterns, vulnerabilities, and control gaps.
• Execute Rule Tuning: Adjust thresholds, logic, and segmentation to optimize real-time decisioning performance.
• Partner Cross-Functionally: Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Operations to support fraud controls in new features and participant journeys.
• Support Investigations & Insights: Provide analytical support for fraud cases, root cause analysis, and loss mitigation efforts.
• Contribute to Reporting: Develop and deliver clear reporting on fraud trends, losses, and control effectiveness.
• Adhere to Governance: Ensure fraud controls are documented, tested, and aligned with risk and compliance standards.

Required Experience

• 2+ years in fraud analytics, fraud strategy, or financial crimes
• Experience in at least one of the following: Fraud rules management / transaction monitoring; Payments fraud, account takeover, or digital fraud risks
• Experience working with cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment

Technical & Analytical Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with experience using data to drive decisions
• Proficiency in SQL, SAS, Python or other data analysis tools and data visualization tools such as Tableau or Power BI
• Familiarity with fraud rules engines or decisioning platforms (preferred)
• Basic understanding of fraud models or scoring methodologies

Professional Skills

• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to translate data insights into clear, actionable recommendations
• Detail-oriented with strong execution focus
• Collaborative mindset with ability to work across teams