[Hiring] Senior Risk Investigator @Mercury

Role Description

This is a senior individual contributor role for an investigator who thrives in the hardest, least defined problems in fraud. You will own fraud incident response from detection to postmortem across first-party and third-party fraud, write the memos and responses that our partners and auditors rely on, and be the operational voice of Fraud Operations in partner-bank conversations. You will lead Fraud Operations' response to audit and regulatory observations, and you will help Mercury get ready to operate as a bank, translating what examiners and partner banks expect into the processes, evidence, and documentation our teams need every day.

What You'll Do

• Lead fraud incident management
• Act as incident lead or operational DRI for fraud incidents across all Mercury products, including:
  • Account takeover
  • Card testing and BIN attacks
  • Mule and ring activity
  • Spikes in fraud behavior
  • First-party fraud trends
• Mobilize incident response, size impact, pull the right people from Fraud Investigations, Enablement, Strategy, Product, and Engineering, and keep everyone aligned on what we know, what we don't, and who owns what.
• Make or tee up decisions with a recommendation attached: containment, customer communication, reimbursement and credit decisions, account actions, and when to escalate.
• Run postmortems and retros for first-party and third-party fraud incidents: root cause, control gaps, remediation owners and dates, and track statuses of each.
• Spot patterns across incidents and turn them into durable fixes in alerts, rules, SOPs, product or tooling change requests, and training instead of one-off responses.
• Write the memos and responses partners and auditors rely on
• Draft incident and retro memos for bank partners and internal risk governance: what happened, impact, root cause, controls in place, remediation plan, and timelines.
• Use AI tools to get from raw incident data to a strong first draft quickly, then verify every number and claim against source data before it leaves the team.
• Prepare accurate, concise responses to partner-bank questions, suspicious activity and investigation inquiries, and requests for information.
• Coordinate with bank partners
• Be a day-to-day operational point of contact for partner-bank risk, AML, and investigations teams, working alongside Partnerships and Compliance.
• Track open partner requests, commitments, and change-management items, and make sure Fraud Operations responds consistently and on time.
• Bring partner feedback and expectations back to Fraud Operations, Strategy, and Product so controls and processes are built with the partner in mind.
• Support audit and exam response for the Fraud domain
• Be Fraud Operations support for audit and regulatory observations: validate accuracy, provide program context, push back where ratings or facts are off, and agree action plans with realistic dates and owners.
• Keep evidence, SOPs, and decision records current so that an audit or exam never becomes a scramble.
• Track issues through governance systems in partnership with Enablement until closure, and confirm the fix worked.
• Raise the bar for the team
• Mentor teammates on how to escalate: bring a recommendation and the facts, not just a question.
• Work with Enablement and QC to feed incident learnings into training, scorecards, and playbooks.
• Partner with Strategy and Engineering on tooling and reporting that make incident response faster.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in fraud investigations, risk operations, or financial crimes at a bank, fintech, or other regulated financial services company, including hands-on investigation of both first-party and third-party fraud.
• Experience leading or serving as a key operator in fraud incidents or similar high-severity events: sizing impact, driving cross-functional response, making decisions with incomplete information, and running the postmortem.
• Strong writing. A track record of producing incident reports, regulatory or partner-bank memos, or audit responses that were precise, defensible, and read by executives or examiners.
• Working knowledge of how a regulated institution runs, with direct experience working with sponsor or partner banks, regulators, examiners, or auditors.
• Solid understanding of US payment rails and fraud typologies, such as ACH, wires, checks, cards, account takeover, mule accounts, and synthetic or first-party fraud.
• Comfort with data: you can pull and interpret volume, loss, and rate data (SQL or dashboard tools), and explain what the numbers mean and where they could mislead.
• Proven ability to influence people who don't report to you and to drive decisions to closure across Operations, Strategy, Product, Engineering, Compliance, and Legal.
• Good judgment on escalation: you bring a recommendation with the facts and make the next decision easier for leaders.
• Experience using AI and automation to synthesize evidence, draft documents, summarize incidents, and keep status reporting current.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with the sponsor-bank or bank-partner side of fraud, such as UAR/SAR support, Reg E error resolution, or card network and NACHA rules.
• Experience with BPO or outsourced operations.
• Familiarity with incident management tooling and practices (severity levels, incident command, written postmortems).
• Continuous improvement or project management background.
• Experience in a high-growth fintech environment.

Benefits

• Base salary
• Equity (stock options/RSUs)
• Highly competitive salary and equity ranges within the SaaS and fintech industry
• New hire offers based on experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity
• Target new hire base salary ranges:
  • US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $154,200 — $192,800 USD
  • US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $138,800 — $173,500 USD

Company Description

Mercury is building a complete financial stack for startups, and Risk is how we protect our customers, Mercury, and the broader financial ecosystem. You'll join Fraud Operations, part of the Fraud & Disputes organization. The team investigates and prevents fraud across every Mercury product, and works hand in hand with Risk Strategy, Product, Engineering, Compliance, and our bank partners.