Manager of Business Analytics - Fraud

Koalafi•Arlington, VA

About The Position

At Koalafi, we believe in a world where no one has to put an important purchase on hold. That’s why we’re making it easier for more people to pay for big purchases over time. Retailers across the country rely on us to offer flexible lease-to-own financing to their non-prime consumers, while increasing sales and strengthening customer loyalty. Their 2M+ customers love us because we provide a flexible way for them to make payments and give them an opportunity to improve their credit. Our 200+ Koalafi teammates enjoy inspiring and challenging work that accelerates their careers. Interested in learning more about how we’re transforming the financing experience and joining our team? About Koalafi At Koalafi, we believe in a world where no one has to put an important purchase on hold. That’s why we’re making it easier for more people to pay for big purchases over time. Over 17,000 retailers rely on us to match their customers to a payment plan clearly and quickly, all while reflecting well on their brand. Their 2M+ customers love us because we provide a flexible way for them to make payments and give them an opportunity to improve their credit. Our 200+ Koalafi teammates enjoy inspiring and challenging work that accelerates their careers. What You’ll Do Fraud is one of the largest challenges plaguing financial institutions today, with an estimated $27 billion in annual losses from identity theft alone1. In addition to identity theft, there is a growing trend of synthetic IDs, manipulated IDs, and scam incidents. Koalafi is continuing to scale its payments and financing platform across direct-to-consumer and merchant channels. As fraud attack strategies evolve alongside this growth, the company is investing in stronger and more adaptive fraud defenses. The Manager of Business Analytics – Fraud will report directly to the Director of Fraud Strategy & Analytics and play a central role in developing and optimizing Koalafi’s fraud risk strategy. This role will lead analytical efforts to develop and iterate fraud policies, evaluate new fraud defense capabilities and data sources, and strengthen fraud monitoring and reporting frameworks. The position will focus on improving Koalafi’s resilience against evolving fraud trends while enabling responsible growth across new products, channels, and partners. This individual will serve as a key analytical partner to Product, Engineering, Risk Operations, and other cross-functional teams to ensure fraud controls are effectively embedded in customer and merchant workflows.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required, in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Business, or Engineering preferred
5+ years of experience in an analyst, data science, or consulting role
3+ years of experience in fraud risk analytics
Experience in consumer financing industry, such as credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, BNPL, or similar fields
Proficiency in Excel, SQL, and Python for data analysis
Exceptional attention to detail and strong problem-solving skills
Ability to develop strategic project plans and execute against them
Desire to work in a fast-paced, dynamic entrepreneurial environment
Strong written and verbal communication skills

Responsibilities

Lead the analysis and continuous improvement of Koalafi’s fraud defense framework, including policies, decision rules, thresholds, and model targeting.
Analyze fraud trends and attack patterns to continuously strengthen automated and manual fraud defenses.
Develop and iterate fraud defense strategy (rules, policies, thresholds, decision logic) to maintain strong protection against both ambient fraud activity and coordinated fraud attacks.
Design and implement defenses tailored to emerging channels, including direct-to-consumer, to support enterprise-wide scaling initiatives.
Evaluate and integrate new fraud detection capabilities, tools, and third-party data sources that improve risk detection and operational efficiency.
Enhance and optimize merchant-level fraud risk monitoring and reporting, identifying patterns that may indicate merchant abuse or elevated risk exposure.
Improve and scale the fraud monitoring framework to ensure early detection of emerging threats and clear visibility into fraud performance.
Develop and enhance fraud monitoring dashboards and reporting that track fraud performance metrics and trends across customer segments, merchant verticals, and channels.
Build analytical tools and monitoring processes designed to detect segment-level anomalies and emerging fraud patterns.
Implement automated alerting and anomaly detection to enable timely response to new fraud threats.
Partner with Analytics and Data teams to ensure fraud metrics and reporting are accurate, scalable, and aligned across systems.
Support new product launches and business initiatives by providing analytical insights into fraud risk and mitigation strategies.
Support product design and rollout decisions by quantifying trade-offs among fraud risk, approval rate, unit economics, and customer experience.
Conduct targeted analyses to evaluate fraud exposure across new merchant partners, verticals, and products.
Monitor fraud performance during product launches, pilots, and scaling phases, identifying early indicators of emerging risk.
Provide ad hoc analytical support for fraud strategy initiatives and evolving risk mitigation efforts.
Serve as a key analytical partner across teams to ensure fraud defenses are embedded effectively within Koalafi’s products and operational processes.
Partner closely with Product and Engineering teams during product development to ensure fraud risk controls are built into key workflows.
Collaborate with Risk Operations to ensure manual review processes align with fraud policy intent and evolving fraud patterns.
Provide analytical insights that support clear decision-making across stakeholders and initiatives.
Help drive alignment across teams by defining project milestones, delivering analytical insights, and maintaining effective communication with key stakeholders.