Principal Fraud Risk Leader

About the role

The Principal Fraud Risk Leader owns Cellulant’s enterprise‑wide fraud risk management across all payment products and markets. This senior position drives strategy, controls and governance while balancing fraud loss reduction with a seamless customer experience.

Key responsibilities

• Set enterprise fraud detection strategy, rules architecture and risk‑appetite thresholds approved by the Board/ExCo.
• Design risk‑based fraud controls that balance prevention with customer experience and approve changes to fraud rule thresholds.
• Own and maintain fraud risk policies, standards and operating procedures; lead enterprise fraud risk assessments.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to embed fraud controls into new products and payment journeys before launch across all markets.
• Define fraud monitoring platform strategy, lead vendor selection and governance for solutions such as Falcon, Feedzai, Featurespace, Cybersource or Visa Risk Manager.
• Direct fraud pattern, attack‑vector and emerging‑threat analysis; own dashboards, KPIs and executive reporting.
• Lead response to significant external fraud events, chair post‑incident reviews and ensure remediation to completion.
• Set standards, SLAs and quality thresholds for day‑to‑day fraud alert monitoring and investigation.
• Own internal financial‑crime investigations, coordinate with HR, Legal and Audit, and chair root‑cause analysis reviews.
• Represent Fraud Risk in cross‑functional governance forums and provide advisory input for merchant onboarding and market expansion.

Required profile

• Demonstrated track record leading fraud risk management within fintech, payments, banking or financial services, including mobile money.
• Proven capability monitoring and investigating transaction fraud across card, bank transfer and mobile‑money channels.
• Track record leading complex fraud investigations to resolution.
• Strong working knowledge of payment ecosystems and transaction lifecycles across African markets.
• Experience designing and optimising fraud detection rules and controls.
• Experience directing or working within fraud monitoring platforms in a 1st‑line control capacity.

Required skills

• SQL
• Power BI
• Tableau
• Cybersource
• MPGS
• Visa Risk Manager
• Falcon
• Feedzai
• Featurespace