Fraud Strategist at Tala

We are seeking a proactive and skilled Fraud Strategist to join our dynamic team. In this critical role, you will be responsible for leading data-driven fraud investigation and mitigation efforts within your designated markets. You will play a key part in driving SQL-based investigations to mitigate fraud losses, while also acting as the primary point of escalation for all fraud data related concerns. Success in this position requires a strong, collaborative spirit, as you will work daily with cross-functional teams, including Product, Analysts, Operators, Engineers, Customer Care, and Compliance, to protect our company and customers from financial fraud.

What You'll Do

• Fraud Investigation & Mitigation

• Proactive Detection: Monitor and analyze transaction data to identify emerging fraud patterns and anomalies within the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indian markets.

• Incident Management: Lead the end-to-end response to fraud attacks, from initial identification and quantification to the recommendation of mitigation logic.

• Risk Modeling: Design and implement robust fraud rules and logic to minimize false positives while maximizing the detection of illicit activity.

• Analytic Excellence

• Data Synthesis: Leverage SQL and Python to conduct deep-dive analyses on large-scale datasets, transforming concerning data trends into actionable business intelligence.

• Performance Monitoring: Develop and maintain automated dashboards to track real-time fraud exposure and health metrics.

• Ad-Hoc Support: Serve as a subject matter expert for fraud data, fulfilling complex data requests for the KYC and Identity Product squads.

• Timely Fraud Loss Mitigation

• Rapid Response: Execute high-velocity interventions to mitigate ongoing fraud incidents, directly protecting company revenue and user trust.

• Continuous Improvement: Regularly audit and refine existing fraud rules to adapt to the evolving threat landscape in high-growth markets.

• Proactive Detection: Build fraud rules to detect abuse in new markets and products, balancing good user impact.

Global & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Stakeholder Alignment: Act as a strategic partner to Product, Engineering, and Operations teams to integrate fraud mitigations into the product lifecycle.

• Data Storytelling: Present weekly and monthly fraud loss performance and incident updates to Market and Product leadership.

• Global Integration: Maintain consistent communication with a globally distributed team, ensuring alignment on mitigation strategies across different time zones.

• Must be able and willing to work at least two hours during East Coast US business hours to ensure effective communication and collaboration with global teams.

What You'll Need

• 2+ years experience as a Fraud or Risk Analyst or Investigator in financial services or a related field within the fintech or digital lending industry.

• Advanced proficiency in SQL and Python for querying large-scale datasets, performing complex data transformations, and automating fraud detection workflows.

• Experience identifying issues, analyzing root causes, and implementing effective solutions to improve global team efficiency and reduce fraud losses.

• Proven track record of recognizing fraud trends and properly escalating material fraud trends to leaders and peers in a timely manner. Ability to analyze data using existing tools to confirm fraud, identify trends, and measure the effectiveness of fraud controls

• Deep understanding of financial fraud typologies specific to fintech and small loan lending, such as identity theft, scam, account takeover, synthetic identity fraud, and other first-party fraud methods.

• Familiarity with the fraud lifecycle, from prevention and detection to investigation and recovery.

• Working hours must overlap during North American East Coast hours for at least 2 hours daily to work directly with globally disbursed colleagues. This role may require on-call scheduling during rare times of incidents.

Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.