Head of Fraud

Our client is committed to building a financial system that works for all, this includes consumers, merchants, banks, regulators and law enforcement. Fraud and identity are unfortunately still significant challenges for everyone involved in payments and commerce. Our client is committed to combatting this and is building both tools and capabilities to improve its abilities in this space. The Law Enforcement Community (LEC) does a great deal to support the victims of crime and seek out the perpetrators, so our client is looking to build a strong connection with LEC.

Role Overview

The Head of Fraud will lead our client’s fraud prevention and detection framework across all South African products. This senior role will work with Exco to define our client’s fraud risk appetite and policy, and will have full accountability for execution — building Risk Operations (Risk Ops), leading investigations, managing bank escalations and chargebacks, and ensuring partner bank fraud thresholds are met.

The Head of Fraud will work closely with the Shield Team, Legal, Compliance, and Partnerships teams, and act as the company’s operational point of contact on fraud for regulators, partner banks, and industry stakeholders.

Job Type: Full Time/Permanent

Work Place: Remote

Requirements

• 10+ years in fraud risk, financial crime, or investigations, with at least 3 years in leadership.
• Strong experience managing fraud escalations, chargebacks, and partner bank fraud thresholds in a payments or fintech context.
• Deep understanding of South African payment fraud typologies, fraud prevention tooling etc
• Proven track record of operational execution against risk policy defined at executive level.
• Strong relationship management skills with partner banks, regulators, and external stakeholders.
• Ability to work closely with technical teams like the Shield Team to deliver outcomes.
• Execution-focused leader who can translate policy into operational success.
• Excellent communicator across technical, operational, executive, and partner bank audiences.
• High integrity and judgment in high-pressure situations.
• Strong collaborator, particularly with Partnerships to maintain bank confidence.
• Comfortable with selective public engagement, representing our client with credibility.

Responsibilities

Fraud Policy & Risk Strategy

• Define our client’s fraud strategy and risk appetite, policy, and key fraud control principles.
• Translate agreed policy into operational execution plans and incident management processes.
• Monitor fraud performance metrics against strategy, reporting results to Exco Risk Operations (Risk Ops)
• Build and lead the Risk Ops team deliver on our client’s Fraud Strategy to handle the defined operations.
• Manage fraud escalations from partner banks, ensuring timely resolution and feedback loops.
• Oversee chargeback management processes, ensuring disputes are resolved efficiently and in line with scheme and partner bank requirements.
• Maintain processes and controls to meet or stay below partner bank fraud thresholds (for TPPP agreements).
• Implement playbooks for fraud incident response, including merchant interventions, suspension, or termination.

Collaboration & Technology Integration

• Partner with the Shield Team to enhance fraud detection and prevention tooling.
• Work closely with the Partnerships team to maintain strong partner bank relationships, ensuring fraud performance metrics are aligned with contractual obligations.
• Coordinate with the Law Enforcement Liaison Officer (LELO) for effective case escalation to SAPS, Hawks, and other authorities.
• Collaborate with Legal, Compliance, and Product to embed fraud controls into product design and merchant lifecycle management.

Regulatory Compliance & Reporting

• Oversee fraud-related regulatory reporting, including STRs to the FIC.
• Ensure fraud controls are compliant with PASA and SARB directives, as well as card scheme and partner bank requirements.
• Represent fraud operations in audits, regulatory reviews, and industry-level risk committees.

Public Representation

• Act as our client’s credible external voice on fraud, engaging with regulators, partner banks, and industry forums when needed.