Fraud Operations Lead

Ivory Coast·Abidjanlead

OperationsOperations Manager

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Quick Summary

Key Responsibilities

At least 5 years of relevant experience in fraud operations, transaction monitoring, or financial investigations within a fintech, payments processor, digital banking, mobile money,

Technical Tools

OperationsOperations Manager

In November 2020, Djamo launched its financial application in Côte D’Ivoire, then in Senegal in December 2023, offering online and offline payments, peer-to-peer transactions, fund transfers, savings, and budgeting tools.

Today, we help hundreds of thousands manage their money simply, securely, and transparently. Our growth continues to accelerate as we build the next generation of financial services for Francophone Africa, where fewer than 25% of adults have access to traditional banking services.

The WAEMU financial ecosystem is undergoing systemic transformation, with a market moving beyond mobile money services and classic banks toward comprehensive digital financial solutions. Djamo is uniquely positioned to become a financial partner throughout this journey.

Backed by world-class investors including Y Combinator, Partech, Kima Ventures, and Norskeen, we are building the future of financial services in Africa.

We are looking for a Fraud Operations Lead to build and lead our operational fraud prevention, detection, and response capabilities. This is a hands-on role for an execution-focused leader who combines sharp investigative judgment, strong analytical skills, and the ability to act quickly under pressure.

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer (COO), you will own the day-to-day management of fraud alerts, investigations, and operational responses across Djamo’s customer accounts, transactions, cards, credit products, and agent network, in all Djamo entities.

Your mission is to reduce fraud losses, protect customers, and strengthen detection while limiting unnecessary friction for legitimate users. You will translate emerging fintech fraud patterns into practical actions, effective workflows, and concrete improvements to our internal tooling.
Scope Warning: This role is highly operational and includes field work to audit physical distribution vulnerabilities and agent/merchant networks.

Responsibilities

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Lead daily monitoring of suspicious transactions, accounts, and agent activity, ensuring real-time alerts are reviewed within strict agreed SLA timelines.
Actively identify, trace, and catalog systemic fintech fraud patterns, including Account Takeovers (ATO), identity misuse and synthetic KYC fraud, social engineering scams, coordinated fraudulent account networks, promotion abuse, suspicious mobile cash-in or cash-out activity, card fraud (unauthorized transactions, chargebacks and disputes), credit fraud (first-party fraud, falsified applications), and internal fraud, including collusion between agents and employees and commission abuse.
Partner cross-functionally with Data, Product, and Engineering teams (including our Staff Data Scientist for Credit & Fraud) to improve backend detection rules, machine learning parameters, alert prioritization, and tooling.
Continuously review automated detection performance to recommend real-time adjustments that reduce missed fraud while driving down false positives.

Own fraud cases from initial triage through containment, investigation, escalation, and final closure.
Coordinate urgent, high-stakes responses to active fraud incidents, executing decisive account restrictions or transaction interventions within approved authority limits.
Establish clear incident severity levels, rapid escalation paths, and operational response procedures.
Methodically document evidence, decision justifications, financial exposure, and investigation outcomes.
Coordinate financial recovery efforts and external escalations alongside Finance, Legal, Compliance, and relevant external regional partners.

Build comprehensive investigation playbooks, case management workflows, and strict quality standards.
Define clear responsibilities for alert handling, account restrictions, customer communication templates, and account release mechanics.
Ensure all sensitive actions (such as freezing funds or onboarding overrides) are fully traceable, auditable, and subject to appropriate approval frameworks.
Identify manual operational bottlenecks and work directly with technical teams to automate repetitive tasks.
Maintain robust operational coverage and on-call escalation arrangements appropriate to changing transaction volumes and incident severity.

Lead, mentor, and coach our team of Fraud & Risk Analysts, effectively organizing shifting workloads and establishing clear performance expectations.
Actively develop the team’s core investigative skills, decision-making consistency, and technical understanding of evolving West African fraud techniques.
Review case quality via routine QA audits and provide practical, constructive feedback on evidence gathering, escalation, and resolution.
Assess future staffing, coverage, and language needs as the business scales into new markets.

Partner with Customer Service and Operations to identify early fraud signals and support affected customers compassionately.
Work with Product and Engineering to close systemic vulnerabilities in customer onboarding journeys and operational backend processes.
Act as the first line of defense on fraud (detection, investigation, and response), working with the Risk & Internal Control department, as second line, on fraud risk assessments, control testing, and remediation.
Coordinate seamlessly with Compliance on cases requiring statutory regulatory assessment or reporting.
Share actionable fraud threat intelligence with relevant cross-market teams.

Provide the COO with concise, metric-driven reporting on fraud losses, incident trends, response times, and current operational priorities.
Track financial recoveries, investigation backlogs, repeat incidents, and the long-term effectiveness of corrective actions.
Distinguish clearly between confirmed losses, recovered funds, and estimated prevented losses using strict, data-validated measurement definitions.
Turn routine incident findings into prioritized recommendations and relentlessly follow through on their technical implementation.

Experience: At least 5 years of relevant experience in fraud operations, transaction monitoring, or financial investigations within a fintech, payments processor, digital banking, mobile money, or comparable high-growth environment.

Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading a team of analysts or owning a significant, standalone fraud operations function.

Investigative Depth: Hands-on experience investigating transaction fraud, account abuse, and highly coordinated fraud/syndicate schemes.

Technical Stack: Strong analytical skills, including mastery of spreadsheets (Excel) and the ability to autonomously write SQL queries or work deeply with Data engineering teams to extract raw logs.

Tooling: Experience utilizing fraud monitoring systems, case management software, and transaction graph analysis tools.

Execution: Proven ability to make timely, evidence-based decisions under pressure while recognizing exactly when executive escalation is required.

Building Mindset: Experience building operational workflows, playbooks, and structural operational reporting frameworks from scratch within a growing business.

Communication: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to distill complex, technical fraud cases into clear, concise executive narratives.

Languages: Professional fluency in French and sufficient English to collaborate across remote engineering teams and document investigation findings.

Geographic Advantage: Direct experience working within the West African financial services or mobile money ecosystems (WAEMU/UEMOA) is highly advantageous.

Decision Rights: The role operates within strictly documented decision rights. Account restrictions, fund recovery actions, and external disclosures must rigorously follow relevant internal approval procedures.

Ownership: You drive cases and structural corrective actions all the way through to absolute resolution.
Sound Judgment: You effortlessly balance urgency, analytical evidence, and negative customer impact.
Curiosity: You investigate well beyond individual alerts to uncover broader, systemic fraud patterns.
Integrity: You handle highly sensitive user information carefully and maintain pristine, auditable records.
Collaboration: You naturally mobilize the right teams and communicate with total clarity during high-stress incidents.
Adaptability: You adjust tactics quickly as fraud methods and business needs evolve day-to-day.

Performance will be evaluated by the COO against a balanced set of key performance indicators:

Loss Ratios: Confirmed fraud losses relative to total transaction value.
Speed to Containment: Time taken to assess and successfully contain critical, high-severity incidents.
Queue Health: Alert and investigation turnaround times alongside backlog volume and ageing metrics.
Execution Quality: Investigation depth and strict adherence to internal decision/approval procedures.
Recoveries: Positive financial recovery outcomes following localized fraud incidents.
Customer Experience: False-positive ratios and minimizing negative impacts on legitimate Djamo users.
Implementation: Completion and long-term effectiveness of corrective product/rule recommendations.

Days 1–30: Complete a comprehensive assessment of current fraud patterns, losses, active tools, operational workflows, and existing analyst team capabilities.
Days 31–60: Establish a baseline operational dashboard and formally agree on strategic metrics and priorities with the COO. Implement incident escalation procedures, definitive decision rights, and core investigation playbooks.
Days 61–90: Aggressively address the most significant monitoring and response gaps. Present a prioritized roadmap to the COO covering long-term detection improvements, tooling acquisitions, staffing structures, and operational field coverage.

What We Offer

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At Djamo, we believe in a healthy balance between autonomy and collaboration, insight and intuition, work and personal life.

✓Small, open, and friendly teams: work alongside talented people who care deeply about building products our customers genuinely love.

✓An ethical and stimulating environment: join a company built on integrity, innovation, and solving meaningful problems across Africa.

✓Accelerated growth: Help scale one of the fastest-growing fintechs in Francophone Africa.

✓Own meaningful challenges: Take ownership of high-impact initiatives from day one and directly contribute to shaping the future of financial services in Africa.

✓A culture that invests in talent: Grow in a collaborative environment that values continuous learning, leadership development, and internal mobility.

At Djamo, we believe diversity makes us stronger. We review every application fairly and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Don't meet every single requirement? That's okay. If you're excited about this role and believe you can make a meaningful impact, we'd still love to hear from you.

Permanent Contract (CDI)

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Financial Technology (Fintech) / Digital Financial Services