Principal: Fraud Risk

About Cellulant: Cellulant is Africa’s leading payments company, providing seamless, secure and innovative solutions that empower businesses, banks, and global brands to thrive in a fast-changing global economy. With a presence in over 24 countries and 200+ payment methods across cards, bank transfer and mobile money , our single API payment platform, Tingg , simplifies collections, disbursements, and reconciliations. It processes over 1 million transactions daily for market leaders across sectors such as Airlines, Telecoms, E-commerce, Ride-Hailing, Retail, and Remittances. By simplifying how people pay and get paid, we drive trust, commerce and scale – and connect companies to their ambitions. Our Mission To deliver seamless, secure and innovative payment solutions for businesses. Our Vision: To create a connected world where businesses move money as easily as they share ideas. Our Story: Across Africa, payments are more than transactions. They are gateways to prosperity, connecting people, businesses and communities to opportunities and growth. From enabling a logistics company in Lusaka to pay suppliers across borders, to enabling a hospitality brand in Lagos to scale effortlessly, to supporting an airline in Nairobi to reconcile payments from multiple platforms, Cellulant is the bridge that makes it all possible. Through trusted technology and customer-centric innovation, we build connections that inspire progress, strengthen economies and transform payments into a tool for progress. Since our founding in 2003, we've continuously adapted and grown, leveraging our experiences to simplify payments for businesses. We are driven by an unshakable belief that seamless people-centred payments are the key to unlocking prosperity. Today, Cellulant powers online and offline payment processing, allowing businesses to collect payments, send payouts, and accelerate business growth. Role Overview: The Principal: Fraud Risk owns Cellulant's enterprise fraud risk management capability across all payment products and markets, as both a 1st and a 2nd-line control function within Risk. The role is accountable for proactively identifying emerging fraud threats, designing and optimising fraud prevention and detection controls, minimising fraud losses while protecting customer experience, and directing fraud governance across card, bank transfer, mobile money and alternative payment methods, continent-wide. As Cellulant's subject matter authority on fraud, the Principal partners with Product, Engineering, Operations and Commercial teams to embed fraud controls into products and payment flows, and interfaces with Compliance on AML-adjacent fraud typologies and regulatory fraud reporting obligations, while retaining ownership of the fraud control framework itself. What You'll do: Fraud Strategy, Controls & Governance Set enterprise fraud detection strategy, rules architecture and risk appetite thresholds within Board/ExCo-approved risk appetite. Design risk-based fraud controls that balance prevention with customer experience; approve changes to fraud rule thresholds within delegated authority. Own and maintain fraud risk policies, standards and operating procedures; lead enterprise fraud risk assessments. Partner with Product and Engineering to embed fraud controls into new products and payment journeys before launch, across all markets. Set direction for fraud monitoring platform strategy and lead vendor selection/relationship governance (e.g. Falcon, Feedzai, Featurespace, Cybersource, Visa Risk Manager, or mobile-money-specific equivalents). Fraud Analytics & Intelligence Direct fraud pattern, attack vector and emerging threat analysis across all markets and channels. Own fraud dashboards, KPIs and executive/Board-level reporting. Direct use of data and, where deployed, AI/ML-driven detection to improve accuracy and reduce false positives. Incident Management & Escalation Own the response to significant/material external fraud events and chair post-incident reviews and root cause analysis. Ensure fraud incidents are documented and reported per governance requirements; track remediation to completion. Escalate to VP: Risk and, where thresholds are met, to Risk Committee/ExCo. Fraud Operations Oversight Set standards, SLAs and quality thresholds for day-to-day fraud alert monitoring and investigation, performed by fraud operations/analyst resource. Review escalated and complex cases that fall outside standard investigation parameters. Drive continuous improvement of fraud investigation workflows and automation of investigation/case-management effort. Internal Fraud Management Own the response and forensic investigation lifecycle for all internal financial crime/collusion incidents. Lead end-to-end internal fraud investigations involving employees, contractors, or third-party agents in coordination with HR, Legal, and Audit. Chair post-incident root cause analysis (RCA) reviews to remediate control gaps. Ensure incidents are documented, tracked to completion, and escalated to the VP: Risk, ExCo, or the Risk Committee when thresholds are met. Cross-functional Collaboration Represent Fraud Risk in cross-functional governance forums and product/market launch reviews. Interface with Compliance on fraud typologies with AML relevance and on regulatory fraud reporting obligations (SAR-equivalent filings, scheme/regulator notifications). Provide fraud risk advisory input to merchant onboarding and market expansion, pan-continentally. Knowledge Leadership Act as Cellulant's subject matter authority on fraud; represent Cellulant's fraud posture in industry and regulatory forums. Build fraud awareness across the business and mentor fraud analysts/operations staff. What we are looking for: Required Demonstrated track record leading fraud risk management within fintech, payments, banking or financial services, including mobile money. Proven capability monitoring and investigating transaction fraud across card, bank transfer and mobile money payment channels, including mobile-money-specific typologies (SIM-swap, agent-network fraud, USSD-based social engineering). Track record leading complex fraud investigations to resolution. Strong working knowledge of payment ecosystems and transaction lifecycles across African markets. Demonstrated capability designing and optimising fraud detection rules and controls. Experience directing or working within fraud monitoring platforms in a 1st-line control capacity. Preferred Experience directing enterprise fraud monitoring using rule-based and/or machine learning models. Experience with Cybersource, MPGS, Visa Risk Manager, Falcon, Feedzai, Featurespace or comparable platforms, including mobile-money-specific fraud tooling. Experience with payment gateways and acquiring environments. Working knowledge of SQL, Power BI, Tableau or other analytics tools. Track record supporting fraud controls across multiple African markets and engaging in-country regulators. Technical understanding of APIs and payment integrations. Exposure to AI-driven fraud detection solutions. Qualifications Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Risk Management, Business Administration, Criminology/Forensic Studies, Law, or a related field; Information Systems or Data Analytics is an acceptable alternate route where paired with demonstrated fraud/financial-crime track record. Core certifications: Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE); CAMS/ACAMS (Certified/Associate Anti-Money Laundering Specialist). Advantageous, where the role carries significant platform/technical ownership: Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA); Certified Information Security Manager (CISM); PCI DSS or other payment security certifications. Why this role matters? Operating across 24+ African markets requires navigating sophisticated financial crime, volatile attack vectors, and distinct regulatory reporting rules. You serve as Cellulant’s subject matter authority on fraud, directly protecting the enterprise's bottom line, transaction volume, and market reputation. By embedding proactive controls into Tingg payment flows and maintaining a low false-positive rate, you ensure seamless customer journeys, safeguard working capital, and preserve the trust that enables Cellulant to scale digital payments across Africa. Why Work for Us? At Cellulant, we are more than a payments company: we are bridge-builders. We believe that by simplifying the way people pay and get paid, we are connecting companies to their ambitions, people to opportunities, and Africa to the global economy . Our work goes beyond payments—it’s about what people, businesses, and communities can do when the movement of money becomes more dependable, seamless, and secure. Some exciting things about us... We have an extensive footprint: We have an office presence in 10 countries, and our products serve 24 countries across Africa, with a global workforce of about 300 employees. We believe innovation is at the heart of Fintech: Thousands of market leaders and top enterprises trust our technology to power their payments. Our customers are in various sectors, including financial services, travel and hospitality, telecom, e-commerce, remittance companies, SaaS, and the gig economy. We put our employees first : We offer market-related compensation, generous personal time off, and medical and life insurance benefits (markets permitting). We seek collaborative builders. At Cellulant, we believe that great ideas happen when we come together. Therefore, we nurture a collaborative work environment that challenges, engages, and empowers each person to contribute to the growth and success of the business. We solve for Africa’s digital economy: We’re solving payment challenges on the continent to create opportunities and accelerate economic growth for all of Africa. We support a diverse and inclusive workforce : We focus on the growth and development of our employees through well-developed, individualised career paths, ensuring you reach your full potential in a supportive and delivery-oriented environment. Our inclusivity pledge: At Cellulant, we value the diversity of our people and the customers we serve. We're committed to a workplace where individual differences are recognised, respected and celebrated, and where fairness, dignity and respect guide how we treat everyone. As an equal opportunity employer, we recruit, employ, develop and reward our people based on merit, competence and business need, and we do not discriminate against any employee, worker or applicant on any ground prohibited by the law of the country in which they are employed. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply and thrive with us. If you need assistance completing an application, accessing our website, or require reasonable accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact [email protected]/ [email protected].