Summary
We are launching a new venture to empower fast-growing financial companies by managing risks and fighting fraudsters in a very novel way. We are looking for a highly operational Chief Risk Operations Officer to bring us there. This person will grow and lead the risk management operations of the venture that will act as the fractional Risk Team for our clients.
Please note: This is not an employee opportunity at Diagram Ventures, but in a new company created through our venture studio model. This company will be independent of Diagram Ventures, and the founding team will receive the majority of the equity in the venture. The Opportunity
Rapid digitization of financial services and the extraordinary competition amongst fintechs is causing major risk management turbulence (the Federal Trade Commission reported 6.1B$ in fraud losses in 2021, up almost 80% from 2020). For fintechs, balancing growth and risks efficiently is a sophisticated and sensitive function that requires expertise, processes and tools. While fraud prevention and AML tools (SaaS, data vendors, etc.) are plenty in the marketplace, Fintechs still need to build multi-disciplinary ops teams (analysts, data science) to monitor traffic and constantly improve their defenses. However, staffing and training a risk team is hardly scalable and very costly. Companies can only implement changes reactively, allowing fraudsters to hop from platform to platform using the same schemes over and over again.
Our newly created company will supply fintechs with out-of-the-box specialized services that will give them immediate access to risk and fraud management best practices and ‘playbook’, while also providing them with the highly skilled resources to implement and operate an effective risk department. This will allow them to deliver products and acquire customers quicker and with peace of mind.
This business will use a mix of human expertise and tech-driven processes and data intelligence tools to deliver value and scale faster.
The Chief Risk Operations Officer will bring top of the industry risk management (including fraud prevention) best practices and expertise to implement internally. This person will nurture the vision on how to constantly build efficiency internally or on our clients’ side through technology. As the Chief Risk Operations Officer, the person will be able to represent the company as the top subject matter expert in front of its clients. Who we are looking for
We are assembling the dream team of entrepreneurs, technologists, and financial services specialists, and we are now looking for an accomplished Risk manager to lead the engineering build of our venture. If you are up for it, you will:
Work closely with the CEO and CTO to define the company’s vision and strategy including an operations budget and a hiring plan that matches the growth forecast.
The CRO will be accountable for the delivery of all services and the underlying operations.
Work alongside the engineering and product teams to constantly improve the quality and efficiency of the organization’s operations while maintaining the high standards in terms of data protection and privacy.
Hire and train a workforce of risk analysts and managers responsible for monitoring our client’s live traffic.
Build a business intelligence function able to digest overall data and make recommendations to our clients by building business cases.
Establish a global and scalable workforce to accommodate 24/7 coverage of our services.
Be hands-on and contribute to the risk management advisory services provided to our clients.
Build and maintain a proprietary fraud prevention playbook (that will extend to other risk management dimensions eventually) to help productize our services and train new hires.
Background and experience
Has held senior management roles in risk management departments (preferably fraud prevention) at well established fintechs or financial institutions.
Preferably worked their way up from more technical roles (analyst).
Recognized as a top of the industry subject matter expert in risk management, preferably in fraud prevention.
The words: account takeovers, AML, synthetic ID, KYC/KYB, behavioral analytics have no secrets to you.
Has worked with engineering, data science and product teams to develop and bring to market risk management products.
Other desirable assets:
A consistent track record in leadership roles: hiring, leading and growing a team, ideally in a start-up or scale-up environment in a founding position.
Has sourced talent internationally and has worked with offshore teams and contractors.
About Diagram Ventures
Diagram is a venture builder that conceives and launches technology companies in the financial, crypto, and climate industries. We’ve designed a unique platform for entrepreneurs who have a proven track record or domain expertise to start their next business by combining access to venture capital investment, hands-on support, and a vast network of partners and incumbents. Since 2016, Diagram has raised over $205M and launched 13 new companies across North America. Our ecosystem is home to 90+ angel investors, including 45+ entrepreneurs with >$15B in exits and an extended global network of corporate partners, investors, and builders. Notable Diagram portfolio companies include Synctera (Series A), Conduit (Seed) and Dialogue (IPO). Applying for this position
Diagram and its portfolio companies are equal opportunity employers. We appreciate your interest in working with us; however, only those applicants selected for interviews will be contacted. Diagram may contact you about other possible opportunities you may be a fit for. We launch five new ventures each year and are continually excited to talk to founders and top talent who want to join us.
$60,000 — $130,000/year
