Principal, Fraud Intelligence

About the role

The Principal, Fraud Intelligence will serve as the central architect for next-generation fraud defenses across GoFundMe's global community platform. This role owns the end-to-end strategy, implementation, and evolution of a layered fraud defense system that proactively detects, prevents, and responds to emerging threats. You will act as the primary connective tissue between Product, Engineering, Data, and Fraud Operations, ensuring alignment and seamless execution across all stakeholders. The position requires a strategic thinker who thrives in complexity and can translate intricate fraud patterns into scalable, system-level solutions. You will define the future of fraud intelligence on the platform, driving initiatives that protect both people and causes while enabling safe and fast connections within the community. This is a high-impact senior individual contributor role that demands deep expertise, cross-functional leadership, and a relentless focus on system integrity.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Serve as the definitive fraud defenses expert and collaborate with Product and Engineering to design, evolve, and scale risk tools and strategies that protect the platform.
• Define and operate a comprehensive layered fraud defense approach that spans internal systems, third-party vendors, data signals, rules, and operational workflows to ensure cohesive protection.
• Act as a primary partner to Product teams, supporting PRD development, aligning on concepts, and driving the implementation of robust fraud prevention tools and systems from conception to launch.
• Analyze fraud trends in granular detail and translate insights into actionable improvements across systems, rules, controls, and workflows to reduce risk and increase detection accuracy.
• Bridge the gap between Fraud Operations and Product by embedding frontline insights directly into product and system design to enhance real-world effectiveness.
• Identify and evaluate new data signals from external vendors to strengthen detection capabilities and support the development of rules and workflows that keep pace with evolving threats.
• Manage and optimize fraud rules, thresholds, scoring logic, and vendor configurations to improve detection quality, reduce false positives, and minimize unnecessary manual review.
• Design and optimize workflows across systems and tools to eliminate redundancy, improve operational efficiency, and increase the effectiveness of fraud defenses.
• Build a strong partnership between fraud systems and human operations so that both reinforce each other through continuous feedback and iterative improvements.
• Leverage ML and AI systems to elevate fraud detection, and develop scalable frameworks for training and refining models using operational inputs and real-world outcomes.
• Partner with Data teams to define, build, and maintain data pipelines, dashboards, and reporting that support fraud systems, vendor integrations, decisioning frameworks, and executive visibility into performance.
• Translate regulatory and compliance requirements into clear, actionable workflows and system requirements, collaborating closely with Legal and Compliance to ensure alignment and adherence.
• Develop fraud intelligence reporting for leadership that includes emerging typologies, trend analysis, control performance, and recommended countermeasures to guide strategic decisions.
• Support rapid response to high-severity fraud incidents or emerging threat spikes by providing in-depth analysis, coordination across teams, and recommended system-level mitigations.
• Define and implement case quality and feedback loops to ensure consistent, high-quality fraud decisions and better system training over time.
• Manage relationships with third-party fraud vendors, ensuring performance is continuously measured, optimized, and aligned with evolving business needs and risk tolerance.

Requirements

• Have 8-12+ years of experience in fraud, risk, fraud intelligence, risk analytics, trust & safety, marketplace abuse, financial crime, or related fields, demonstrating a consistent track record in complex environments.
• Have deep experience assessing and implementing fraud solutions, including rules, signals, vendors, workflows, and detection strategies across multiple platforms and use cases.
• Have prior experience working closely with Product and Engineering teams, with a strong understanding of product development and technology concepts such as APIs, SDKs, JavaScript-based integrations, and vendor implementation requirements.
• Bring deep experience across a range of third-party fraud vendors and solutions, including device intelligence, behavioral signals, identity verification, payments, account security, or marketplace risk tools, and understand their respective strengths and limitations.
• Are highly data-driven and able to use insights from multiple systems to guide decisions, measure impact, and influence senior stakeholders with clarity and confidence.
• Enjoy going deep into complex problems and translating them into scalable, system-based solutions that can be operationalized across global platforms and diverse user needs.
• Have a strong track record of owning end-to-end responsibilities that span strategy, execution, and optimization of fraud detection systems and operational workflows.
• Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize technical concepts for both technical and non-technical audiences during cross-functional discussions.