Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Pathward is a financial empowerment company focused on increasing financial access and opportunity through responsible financial products. The Program Director will lead the end-to-end fraud lifecycle across alert operations, investigations, and intelligence, while managing subordinate managers, operational performance, regulatory readiness, and continuous improvement.
Responsibilities
- Provides end-to-end operational leadership for the fraud lifecycle, integrating Level 1 alert operations, Level 2 investigations, and fraud intelligence into a single, coherent operating model
- Owns the operational management rhythm — alert volumes, queue health, work allocation, productivity routines, SLA performance, escalation management, and operational risk response — and resolves day-to-day prioritization and queue conflicts
- Directs the Manager, Fraud Alert Operations and the Manager, Fraud Investigations as peer managers with distinct missions, ensuring clear ownership of alert operations versus complex investigations and effective handoffs between them
- Sets and enforces Level 2 investigative standards, complex case review expectations, documentation and evidence discipline, escalation packages, and management approvals, ensuring investigations are complete, defensible, and examination-ready
- Owns fraud intelligence, including typology development, emerging threat monitoring, root-cause analysis, pattern identification, and feedback loops into detection strategy, rules, and thresholds
- Ensures timely and accurate referral of SAR- and CTR-eligible activity to BSA/AML Operations, and that escalation of immediate-attention, terrorist-financing, human-trafficking, and imminent-loss indicators occurs same business day per procedure
- Establishes, monitors, and reports operational KPIs and KRIs (e.g., alert-to-case conversion, aging, throughput, SLA adherence, loss trends) and provides decision-ready reporting to the SVP and governance forums
- Partners with Governance, Risk & QA on QA/QC themes, procedure adequacy, corrective actions, and audit and exam evidence; partners with Strategy, Analytics & Product Controls on detection rules, thresholds, and control improvements
- Recommends changes to policies and procedures affecting fraud alerting, investigation, and escalation, and drives continuous improvement in alert-to-case workflows, automation, documentation standards, and escalation protocols
- Manages, mentors, and develops management and analyst talent, including hiring, assigning and directing work, establishing goals, evaluating performance, developing schedules and standards, and resolving employee-related issues; may hold budget responsibilities
- Represents fraud operations, investigations, and intelligence in governance committees, audit engagements, and OCC examination support as directed by the SVP
- Other duties as assigned
Skills
- Bachelor's degree in a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience
- Typically requires 10 or more years of related fraud, investigations, or financial-crimes experience, including several years leading teams and managing through subordinate managers or supervisors
- Demonstrated experience owning fraud operations, Level 2 investigations, and/or fraud intelligence in a bank, processor, or comparably regulated environment, including exposure to regulatory examinations (e.g., OCC) and audit engagements
- Strategic and operational leadership across the full fraud lifecycle, with the ability to translate program objectives into daily execution and measurable outcomes
- Deep knowledge of fraud typologies, investigative standards, card and ACH ecosystems, alerting and case management platforms (e.g., Actimize), and SAR/CTR referral requirements
- Strong people leadership, including developing managers, building scalable structures, and setting performance and quality standards
- Sound judgment under pressure with the ability to prioritize competing queues, manage escalations, and balance risk-based approaches with regulatory expectations
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including executive-, audit-, and regulator-ready reporting and documentation
- Professional certification such as Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and/or Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) strongly preferred
Benefits
- This role is also eligible for an annual performance-based incentive opportunity.
- Health insurance
- 401(k) retirement benefits
- Life insurance
- Disability benefits
- Paid time off
Company Overview