Senior Risk Strategist – Fraud

About Mercury

Mercury is building a complete finance stack for startups. We work hard to create the easiest and safest banking experience possible to simplify entrepreneurs' and business owners' financial lives. To enable this stellar banking experience, we need to have a deep understanding of our customers and how they interact with our product.

Position Overview

We are looking to hire a fraud strategist to bring deep domain expertise, a relentless drive to execute, and an analytical approach to our Risk Strategy team, driving impact across fraud domains. Risk Strategy is a hybrid team that combines analytics with thought leadership to identify, assess, and mitigate the financial, regulatory, and reputational risks Mercury faces. The team focuses on data-driven insights and process improvements while ensuring a stellar customer experience that fosters trust in our platform. As a Senior Risk Strategist focused on fraud, you’ll help shape and execute Mercury’s fraud strategy across multiple payment rails and fraud types, combining data-driven analysis with strategic problem solving. You’ll be a core contributor to Mercury’s Personal Banking fraud program build-out while also covering broader Business Banking fraud domains. You’ll partner closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, and Compliance to deliver scalable outcomes that enable the business and reduce fraud losses while protecting customer experience.

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Responsibilities

As part of the journey, we would expect you to:

• Own strategy and execution across multiple fraud domains: including ACH, Check Deposits, Checkbooks, RTP, onboarding, and ATO: with a bias toward action and a high bar for results.
• Drive Mercury’s Personal Banking fraud program build-out, applying consumer fintech expertise to design controls and strategies tailored to consumer account holders.
• Use data and quantitative analysis to design fraud controls, mitigate risk, and improve customer experience while balancing trade-offs.
• Partner with Compliance and Legal to ensure solutions align with regulatory requirements.
• Lead cross‑functional efforts with Product, Engineering, and Operations to design and implement scalable risk solutions.
• Serve as a domain expert across fraud types, proactively identifying gaps and driving systemic improvements across fraud programs.
• Define and track metrics that measure both risk effectiveness and customer impact.
• Take initiative without waiting to be directed: identify problems, build the case, and push work across the finish line.

Qualifications

Some things that might make you successful in a role like this:

• 6+ years of experience in an analytical role, including 4+ years in fraud detection and strategy: consumer fintech experience strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to design and execute fraud strategies across multiple payment rails and fraud types (ACH, checks, RTP, onboarding, ATO, friendly fraud).
• Hands‑on experience contributing to consumer / personal banking fraud programs, including familiarity with consumer‑specific fraud patterns and regulatory context.
• Skilled in customer risk scoring/modeling and process automation.
• Strong SQL proficiency and ability to translate data into actionable strategy.
• Track record of balancing risk, compliance, and customer experience in cross‑functional settings.
• Excellent communication skills to simplify complex risk concepts into clear recommendations.
• Proven ability to operate in ambiguity and make high‑quality decisions with imperfect information.
• Highly self‑motivated with a strong work ethic.
• Curious, growth‑oriented, and motivated to work on fraud problems at all lifecycle stages (new product launches, scaling, and legacy optimization).

Benefits and Compensation

The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity, and benefits. Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers. Our target new hire base salary ranges for th