Role Summary/Purpose:

This role will be responsible for leading the Authentication Strategy & Analytics team within Synchrony’s Authentication team. The Authentication Strategy & Analytics team:

• Develops and runs authentication reports and analytics that communicate authentication performance in terms of fraud and customer experience within the Authentication group and to groups such as Fraud, Operations, Digital, and Acquisitions;

• Continuously researches and evaluates opportunities to improve authentication performance by employing advanced data analytics techniques and identifyingchanges to authentication rules and parameters;

• Runs our authentication governance processes including management of the Authentication Working Group, ownership and review of the Authentication Standard, management of authentication-related risk accepts and issues, vendor management, benefits tracking, and budgeting and cost tracking;

• Identifies and researches authentication-related fraud attacks, participates in deep dives jointly with the rest of the authentication team.

• Works closely with other teams within Authentication to develop the right metrics to assess the effectiveness of Authentication strategies

• Reviews trends and employs advanced analytics to identify opportunities to optimizeauthentication processes so to reduce fraud losses and improve the customer experience. 

• Is responsible for providing actionable insights to senior leadership and working with other members of the Authentication team to implement these opportunities.

• Is also responsible for developing strategies to employ new analytics tools and technologies such as speech analytics, machine learning, and AI, engaging with senior leadership to provide insights and recommendations, and providing wing-to-wing benefit analysis.

• Leads a team across domestic and international sites.

We’re proud to offer you choice and flexibility. You have the option to be remote, and work from home, or come into one of our offices.You may be occasionally requested to commute to our nearest office for in person engagement activities such as team meetings, training and culture events.

• Lead a combination of analytical analysts and the Authentication Data Scrum Team, who support the realization of the Authentication analytics roadmap. Develop and support a high-performance culture within the team, focusing on training and development, regular and open communication, individual accountability and recognition.

• Define the analytics strategy for the Authentication team, ensuring that analytics and data-driven decision making is integrated into the Authentication strategy, as well as the senior leadership team’s agenda on a consistent and measurable basis.

• Drive enhanced strategies using champion/challenger learnings to reduce fraud and improve customer experience

• Work closely with the Acquisition, Account Management, Operations and Fraud Operation teams to identify the latest fraud patterns, trends and rings associated.

• Validate, track and monitor performance of Authentication tools and strategies. Periodically communicate to senior leadership on results, impacts, issues, etc.

• Develop and manage the project prioritization methodology, processes and procedures. Prioritize the backlog to align with the Authentication strategy and strategic goals. Communicate roadmaps, including changes, status, and timelines to senior leadership on a scheduled basis. 

• Oversee, and accelerate the benefits of having a holistic analytics team, and drive the changes that will allow us to push the Digital First Strategic Initiative, and the latest authentication capabilities to ensure data is well distributed, understood and consumed by all of our stakeholders.

• Create direct linkages between the various platforms and the analytics team to review analysis and findings, and support tracking the benefits of these capabilities to optimize return and improve end-to-end customer experience for Synchrony.

• Drive best practice sharing across teams resulting in increased efficiency and scalable capabilities.

• Leverage deep understanding of the customer experience landscape, from digital to operations, to develop recommendations for new analytical methodologies and process improvements. Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with all internal and key stakeholders, including Digital, Operations, Marketing, Credit, and IT.

• Help lead the implementation of critical experiences in analytics to support career development within in the function.

• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of experience building analytically derived strategies within Fraud, Authentication, Credit, Risk or Collections in Financial Services, or in lieu of a Bachelor's degree, 12 years of experience building analytically derived strategies in Fraud, Authentication, Credit, Risk or Collections in Financial Services.

• 5 years of experience working with statistical tools such as SAS, Model Builder Decision Tree, Knowledge Seeker or others.

• Advanced programming with SAS, R or Python

• Experience developing Consumer / Commercial Fraud Strategies, including Authentication-related Fraud Strategies

• Ability to conduct advanced data analysis and complex designs algorithm

• Experience using advanced modeling & data mining techniques (e.g. Machine learning, Big Data) to develop/ optimizeactionable fraud prevention strategies

• 5 years of leadership/managerial experience

Desired Characteristics:

• Degree in Economics, Finance, Mathematics, or Statistics strongly preferred

• Superb communication skills and experience

• Financial Services, Retail, ecommerce or advanced marketing analytics Industry experience

• Excellent people leadership skills and a proven track record of developing high potential talent and delivering results

• Strategic thinker with strong judgment and business sense; ability to influence at the highest levels of organizations

• Deep and broad knowledge/understanding of authentication and best practices in the market

• Ability to simplify complex data sources into a holistic improved customer experience through data insights and analysis

• Knowledge of external Regulatory and Compliance Requirements

• Experience in Analytics leadership roles, preferably with responsibility for multiple analytics functions

• Strong executive presence and communication

• Experience influencing internal and external senior decision-makers

• Excellent change management skills

• Self-starter, high motivation and ability to work well independently as well as motivate and energize teams