AVP, Authentication Analytics & Strategy

Role Summary The AVP, Authentication Analytics & Strategy is responsible for leading data-driven strategy development for customer authentication across digital channels. This role drives measurable reductions in fraud and account takeover risk while improving customer experience through optimized authentication journeys, experimentation, and performance management. The AVP partners cross-functionally with product, technology, fraud strategy, and compliance stakeholders to translate insights into scalable roadmaps, policies, and operational controls. Essential Responsibilities Define target-state authentication journeys (friction-right) and decisioning frameworks (risk-based, adaptive authentication) across all customer touchpoints. Translate business objectives into measurable OKRs/KPIs, and establish governance cadence (monthly/quarterly reviews) to track progress and ROI. Identify and prioritize high-impact opportunities across policy tuning, signal enrichment, model enhancements, vendor capabilities, and platform modernization. Create executive-ready narratives and recommendations supported by data, trade-off analysis, and implementation feasibility. Conduct deep dives on key events (ATO spikes, bot activity, credential stuffing, SIM swap indicators, device compromise) and recommend control improvements. Partner with data science/engineering to define data requirements, instrumentation, and feature availability to improve decisioning effectiveness. Quantify customer impact and financial benefits: loss avoidance, operational savings, digital conversion uplift, and customer satisfaction improvements. Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned. Qualifications / Requirements Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of experience building analytically derived strategies within Credit, Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services, or in lieu of a Bachelor's degree, 9+ years of experience building analytically derived strategies in Marketing, Risk or Collections in Financial services. 3+ years of experience working with statistical tools such as SAS, Python, Tableau. Expert level proficiency with Excel. 3+ years of experience in retail, business, installment loans, or private label credit. Excellent temperament and ability to work through uncertainty, collaborate respectfully across functions & teams, and find solutions to issues. Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required. Desired characteristics: 7+ years of experience in analytics, strategy, fraud risk, authentication, identity, cybersecurity or digital product analytics within financial services, payments, fintech, or e-commerce. Proven track record of developing strategy and driving measurable outcomes across risk reduction and customer experience improvements. Strong analytical skillset: SQL proficiency; experience with Python/R preferred; ability to define metrics, build data stories and perform root-cause analysis. Experience with experimentation/measurement frameworks: A/B testing, test design, lift measurement, causal inference basics, and KPI governance. Knowledge of authentication and fraud patterns: MFA/2FA, OTP, biometrics, device intelligence, behavioral analytics, bot/automation defenses, credential stuffing, and ATO typologies. Executive communication skills: ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment across competing priorities. Salary and Compensation Grade/Level: 11. Salary range: $90,000-$155,000 USD annually, plus eligible annual bonus. Compensation adjustments are made according to market in CA, NY Metro and Seattle. Equal Opportunity Employer All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. #J-18808-Ljbffr Synchrony Financial