Senior Risk Analyst

We are seeking a Senior Risk Analyst
- Risk Investigations, who will be responsible for overseeing collections activity and funding return processes within the Forte payments ecosystem. This role serves as a subject matter expert in post-origination risk events, leading efforts to recover funds, resolve outstanding balances, and investigate anomalous transaction patterns that trigger collections or return activity. Our Senior Risk Analyst will collaborate closely with internal operations, finance, and compliance teams, as well as interact directly with merchants and external stakeholders to resolve complex cases.

• Manage and monitor the end-to-end collections lifecycle for merchant accounts with outstanding balances.
• Review aging reports and prioritize collection queues based on risk exposure, account status, and recovery probability.
• Initiate and track outreach to merchants, coordinating repayment plans or escalating unresolved accounts to legal or third-party recovery as appropriate.
• Maintain accurate records of collections activity, correspondence, and outcomes in case management systems.
• Identify systemic patterns contributing to collections volume and recommend process or policy improvements.

• Oversee the review and processing of funding returns resulting from ACH rejects, closed accounts, disputed transactions, or compliance holds.
• Investigate the root cause of return activity to determine whether remediation, risk action, or further investigation is warranted.
• Coordinate with the Payments Operations and Accounting team to ensure accurate and timely return processing and reconciliation.
• Monitor return rate thresholds and flag accounts approaching network or internal limits for proactive intervention.

• Conduct thorough investigations into accounts flagged for elevated collections or return risk, including review of transaction history, financial data, and publicly available information.
• Identify indicators of fraudulent activity, including card testing, unauthorized ACH transactions, and account manipulation, and initiate appropriate risk actions.
• Support individual account and portfolio-level evaluations to assess financial health, compliance standing, and continued acceptability within the firm’s risk appetite.
• Participate in the underwriting review of merchants whose collections or return history warrants re-evaluation of processing limits or account status.

• Serve as an escalation point for Analyst-level staff on complex or high-exposure collections and return cases.
• Approve, document, and execute escalations, exceptions, and restricted tasks within assigned authority limits.
• Partner with senior management to resolve high-risk or high-value cases requiring cross-functional coordination.

• Analyze collections and funding return data to surface emerging trends, anomalies, and risk concentrations within the portfolio.
• Prepare regular reporting for management on collections performance, return activity, recovery rates, and open exposure.
• Contribute findings to firmwide risk reporting and support special projects as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

• 3+ years of experience in payments risk, collections, chargeback management, or financial investigations.

• Strong working knowledge of ACH return codes, chargeback lifecycle, and dispute resolution processes.

• Experience with merchant acquiring, payment processing, or fintech risk operations.

• Demonstrated ability to analyze financial data and draw sound, defensible risk…