Director, Fraud Investigations

As a company, we were established by Chuck 50 years ago to champion Main Street over Wall Street, and to help Americans transform themselves from earners to owners. Through advocacy and innovation, we work to make investing more affordable, accessible, and understandable for all. As we enter our fifth decade, we are looking for talented, innovative, and driven people who believe they can help themselves, and our clients, create a better future.

Located within Financial Crimes Risk Management (FCRM), the purpose of Fraud Risk Management is to oversee fraud risk in support of Schwab's ability to protect the assets of our customers and company. We work with partners across the firm to proactively identify, assess, manage, and mitigate fraud risk. We conduct independent second-line investigations and resolution of claims of unauthorized or suspicious activity in our customers' accounts. Types of case investigations conducted include account compromises and unauthorized Wires, Visa Debit Card, Check, ACH (Automated Clearing House), Zelle, and BillPay transactions, among others, for both the Bank and Broker Dealer products that Schwab offers. We also have a team dedicated to monitoring, investigating, and resolving fraud and scam cases targeting Schwab's Senior and Vulnerable Investor client population. We report fraudulent activities to law enforcement and other regulatory authorities, review and analyze suspicious activity to determine emerging fraud trends, and support the prevention and recovery of funds lost from clients' custody.

The Fraud Risk Management organization consists of several teams that investigate potential fraud against our clients. They are responsible for conducting high profile, sophisticated, and exciting fraud investigations. We are looking for a leader who can help produce high-quality work, while maintaining a portfolio of cases in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. Excellent people leadership skills are key for this role, and the ability to lead team members through complex, high-volume investigative workloads.

This role leads teams of investigators led by Sr. Managers, and this role reports to the Managing Director. We are seeking to hire a senior-level Investigations leader whose team is responsible for conducting fraud investigations and pursuing recovery efforts on intrusions, compromises, and unauthorized debits is client accounts. The Director will be responsible for all operations of their assigned investigations teams, including interaction with internal and external business partners.

What you will do:

You will need to multitask investigations and a multitude of leadership responsibilities, as well as following up with clients and business partners with regard to cases. Members of the Fraud Investigations group must demonstrate a high degree of initiative with minimal direct supervision when addressing their daily responsibilities, and team leaders must help support the strategy and direction of their team members in alignment with organizational goals and objectives. All casework must be completed within well-defined regulatory guidelines in a busy and highly scrutinized environment. You should be able to demonstrate consistency in exercising sound judgment and decision-making with respect to risk and fraud issues. The ability to effectively balance individual cases, overall workloads, and additional responsibilities at a high level of competency is required.

The Director will serve as a key strategic and operational leader of investigation activities by assigned teams, and may be asked to lead other related processes and projects. You will identify procedural and strategic opportunities to mitigate fraud risk, collaborating with firm partners and industry peers on related initiatives. You will provide regular updates to management on cases, threats, trends, and projects. You will demonstrate personal initiative, innovative thinking, and cross-functional collaboration to help develop oversight around the impact of fraud and scams on Schwab and our clients. This individual will proactively seek opportunities to partner with stakeholders on other investigations teams and throughout Corporate Risk Management, FCRM, and business partners across the firm to meet these objectives. This will involve navigating a matrix of organizations, people, and processes, ranging from model owners, to service teams, to fraud investigators, to data/metric owners, and others.

As needed, they may occasionally support other Fraud and Financial Crimes teams in detecting and investigating other suspicious activity, including account takeovers, imposters, new account fraud, trading-related activity, cyberactivity/remote access fraud, international activity, third-party money movement, rapid fund movement, Visa fraud, and scams (e.g., investment scams, phishing, social engineering, romance scams, trading schemes, crypto scams, technology scams, etc.).

What you have

• At least 12+ years of leadership experience working in a fraud, financial crimes, compliance, or risk management environment of the financial services industry, and/or financial investigations experience in Federal, State, or local regulation or law enforcement.
• Successful experience with leading a team of teams. Demonstrably active, engaged leadership to help both team managers and individual contributors achieve operational excellence, accomplish individual and organizational goals, and make deliberate space for employee well-being and personal/professional development.
• Proven expertise with financial investigations demonstrating forensic competencies, risk-based judgement, problem solving skills, and strong analytical ability. Experience conducting interviews/investigations.
• Understanding of complex scam and fraud tactics, typologies, and methodologies. Familiarity with leveraging complex algorithms and models (including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence) to identify, prevent, and investigate incidents of fraud and scams.
• Proven problem-solving skills, experience in handling complex customer issues, the ability to manage high-pressure situations, resolution, and follow-through. Exceptional client focus.
• Familiarity/experience with Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and other regulatory reports, including applicable standards and timelines.
• Ability to work independently in alignment with strategy/expectations, capable of meeting strict deadlines, and demonstrate excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Experience with executive-level reporting, and an ability to distil complex data and underlying information into clear, comprehensive, and compelling narratives for consumption and action by senior audiences - both in writing and presentations.
• Ability to proactively identify cross-functional partners, and engage with them proactively to solve problems. Proven collaboration skills with cross-functional teams to resolve customer fraud escalations effectively, balancing firm risk with client experience.
• Demonstrable knowledge of the risk management framework. Experience with risk assessments, risk assurance activities, and risk metrics management.
• Knowledge of escalation procedures, setting escalation timelines, and effective communication practices.
• Relevant experience in training, including designing training materials, organizing trainings, and presenting training material.
• Ability to form relationships effectively and quickly, establish trust, respect, competence, and confidence.
• Experience with brokerage/bank services, products, processes, payments, or transactions is preferred.
• Excellent verbal, written, and analytic skills to respond and process incoming referrals from internal/external business partners.
• Strong PC skills in MS Office suite, especially PowerPoint and Excel, including ability to leverage complex formulas and reporting.
• Knowledge of Fraud Risk Management tools is a plus. Examples include: riskCanvas, FRA, CLEAR, or Lexis Nexis.
• Preference for bachelor's degree, advanced education, legal degree, and regulatory or law enforcement experience, Certified Financial Crime Specialist, Certified Fraud Examiner, and/or other industry certifications or training/education.
• Base Compensation: $145,400- $242,500. Your compensation may be different. Talk with your Talent Advisor to learn more. In addition to the salary range, this role is also eligible for bonus or other incentive opportunities.

What's in it for you

At Schwab, we're committed to empowering our employees' personal and professional success. Our purpose-driven, supportive culture, and focus on your development means you'll get the tools you need to make a positive difference in the finance industry. Our Hybrid Work and Flexibility approach balances our ongoing commitment to workplace flexibility, serving our clients, and our strong belief in the value of being together in person on a regular basis.

We offer a competitive benefits package that takes care of the whole you - both today and in the future:

• 401(k) with company match and Employee stock purchase plan
• Paid time for vacation, volunteering, and 28-day sabbatical after every 5 years of service for eligible positions
• Paid parental leave and family building benefits
• Tuition reimbursement
• Health, dental, and vision insurance