Risk Investigator - Third Party/ATO Fraud

About this role

We're looking to hire a Fraud Investigator to join our Account Fraud team, with a focus on Account Takeover (ATO) and other forms of third party fraud. In this role, you'll help protect our customers by investigating suspected account compromise, responding quickly to high-risk security incidents, and serving as the primary point of contact for customers during critical account recovery events.

As a member of our Account Fraud team, you'll investigate escalated account takeover cases, assess account security, coordinate containment and recovery efforts, and communicate directly with customers through some of their most stressful moments. You'll balance decisive risk management with empathy, helping customers regain confidence while ensuring the security of their accounts.

Many of the cases you'll work will involve complex investigations, cross-functional coordination, and significant customer impact. Some incidents will require communicating with company leadership and cross-functional stakeholders and making strong judgment with discretion.

You'll need to develop a deep understanding of how a wide range of businesses operate, recognize the signals of account compromise, and apply investigative thinking to rapidly assess risk and determine the appropriate response with customer experience in mind.

This role requires exceptional attention to detail, strong communication skills, and the ability to remain calm and organized while managing multiple high-priority investigations simultaneously.

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Here are some things you’ll do on the job:

• Lead complex investigations into suspected account takeover (ATO) incidents, exercising sound judgment to determine risk, containment, and recovery strategies

• Own end-to-end response for high-impact and executive-visible ATO cases, serving as a primary coordinator across Fraud, Customer Support, Product, Engineering, Compliance, Legal, and Leadership

• Communicate directly with customers during sensitive account security incidents, providing timely, empathetic guidance throughout the investigation and recovery process

• Help develop and continuously improve ATO investigation policies, playbooks, and operational workflows to increase consistency, quality, and speed to response

• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Risk teams to identify detection gaps and recommend improvements to authentication controls, fraud detection systems, and customer security features

• Escalate emerging account takeover trends, attacker behaviors, and fraud vectors, working with leadership and partner teams to turn findings into actionable operational and product improvements

• Provide subject matter expertise during critical incidents and help guide investigation strategy for the team's most complex and high-risk cases

• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive investigative tasks and improve tooling, operational efficiency, and customer experience

• Maintain clear, defensible investigative documentation that supports internal decision-making, regulatory requirements, and cross-functional collaboration

• Mentor teammates by sharing investigative best practices, reviewing complex cases, and contributing to onboarding and training materials

You should:

• Have 3+ years of direct experience investigating and responding to account takeover (ATO) fraud incidents within a bank, fintech, payments company, or other financial services organization

• Demonstrate deep expertise in account takeover methodologies, attacker tactics, authentication systems, identity verification, and account recovery processes

• Have experience identifying common bank fraud typologies, such as wire fraud, ACH fraud, check fraud, mule accounts, and identity theft

• Be comfortable leading complex, ambiguous investigations that require balancing customer experience, fraud risk, and operational efficiency

• Have exceptional customer-facing communication skills and experience managing high-impact or executive-visible customer incidents with professionalism, empathy, and confidence

• Exercise excellent judgment when making time-sensitive decisions that affect customer access, account security, and financial risk

• Be skilled at influencing cross-functional partners and collaborating effectively with Product, Engineering, Compliance, Customer Support, and Leadership

• Communicate complex investigative findings clearly and concisely, both verbally and in writing, to audiences ranging from customers to senior leadership

• Have a track record of identifying operational inefficiencies and driving meaningful improvements through better processes, tooling, or automation

• Be highly organized and capable of managing multiple critical investigations while maintaining exceptional attention to detail

• Enjoy mentoring teammates, raising the quality bar for investigations, and helping build a strong investigative culture

• Have a strong product mindset and curiosity about evolving fraud threats, authentication technologies, and customer security

• Be motivated by protecting customers and continuously improving Mercury's ability to detect, investigate, and respond to account takeover threats

The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options), and benefits.

Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.

Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following:

• US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $121,700 - $152,100

• US employees outside of New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Fr

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