Principal: Fraud Risk

Cellulant is seeking a Principal: Fraud Risk to own its enterprise fraud risk management capability across all payment products and markets, serving as both a 1st and 2nd-line control function within Risk. The role is accountable for proactively identifying emerging fraud threats, designing and optimizing fraud prevention and detection controls, minimizing fraud losses while protecting customer experience, and directing fraud governance across card, bank transfer, mobile money, and alternative payment methods continent-wide. As the subject matter authority on fraud, the Principal partners with Product, Engineering, Operations, and Commercial teams to embed fraud controls into products and payment flows, and interfaces with Compliance on AML-adjacent fraud typologies and regulatory fraud reporting obligations.

• Set enterprise fraud detection strategy, rules architecture and risk appetite thresholds within Board/ExCo-approved risk appetite.
• Design risk-based fraud controls that balance prevention with customer experience; approve changes to fraud rule thresholds within delegated authority.
• 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.
• Set direction for fraud monitoring platform strategy and lead vendor selection/relationship governance e.g. Falcon, Feedzai, Featurespace, Cybersource, Visa Risk Manager, or mobile-money-specific equivalents.
• Direct fraud pattern, attack vector and emerging threat analysis across all markets and channels.
• Own fraud dashboards, KPIs and executive/Board-level reporting.
• Direct use of data and, where deployed, AI/ML-driven detection to improve accuracy and reduce false positives.
• Own the response to significant/material external fraud events and chair post-incident reviews and root cause analysis.
• Ensure fraud incidents are documented and reported per governance requirements; track remediation to completion.
• Escalate to VP: Risk and, where thresholds are met, to Risk Committee/ExCo.
• Set standards, SLAs and quality thresholds for day-to-day fraud alert monitoring and investigation, performed by fraud operations/analyst resource.
• Review escalated and complex cases that fall outside standard investigation parameters.
• Drive continuous improvement of fraud investigation workflows and automation of investigation/case-management effort.
• Own the response and forensic investigation lifecycle for all internal financial crime/collusion incidents.
• Lead end-to-end internal fraud investigations involving employees, contractors, or third-party agents in coordination with HR, Legal, and Audit.
• Chair post-incident root cause analysis RCA reviews to remediate control gaps.
• Ensure incidents are documented, tracked to completion, and escalated to the VP: Risk, ExCo, or the Risk Committee when thresholds are met.
• Represent Fraud Risk in cross-functional governance forums and product/market launch reviews.
• Interface with Compliance on fraud typologies with AML relevance and on regulatory fraud reporting obligations SAR-equivalent filings, scheme/regulator notifications.
• Provide fraud risk advisory input to merchant onboarding and market expansion, pan-continentally.
• Act as Cellulant's subject matter authority on fraud; represent Cellulant's fraud posture in industry and regulatory forums.
• Build fraud awareness across the business and mentor fraud analysts/operations staff.

• 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 payment channels, including mobile-money-specific typologies SIM-swap, agent-network fraud, USSD-based social engineering.
• Track record leading complex fraud investigations to resolution.
• Strong working knowledge of payment ecosystems and transaction lifecycles across African markets.
• Demonstrated capability designing and optimising fraud detection rules and controls.
• Experience directing or working within fraud monitoring platforms in a 1st-line control capacity.
• Experience directing enterprise fraud monitoring using rule-based and/or machine learning models.
• Experience with Cybersource, MPGS, Visa Risk Manager, Falcon, Feedzai, Featurespace or comparable platforms, including mobile-money-specific fraud tooling.
• Experience with payment gateways and acquiring environments.
• Working knowledge of SQL, Power BI, Tableau or other analytics tools.
• Track record supporting fraud controls across multiple African markets and engaging in-country regulators.
• Technical understanding of APIs and payment integrations.
• Exposure to AI-driven fraud detection solutions.
• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Risk Management, Business Administration, Criminology/Forensic Studies, Law, or a related field; Information Systems or Data Analytics is an acceptable alternate route where paired with demonstrated fraud/financial-crime track record.
• Core certifications: Certified Fraud Examiner CFE; CAMS/ACAMS Certified/Associate Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.
• Advantageous, where the role carries significant platform/technical ownership: Certified Information Systems Auditor CISA; Certified Information Security Manager CISM; PCI DSS or other payment security certifications.