Forward Financing is a financial technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts with team members throughout the United States, Dominican Republic, and Canada. The company is on a mission to unlock the capital that fuels small businesses across America. Recognized as a Best Place to Work by Built In Boston and certified as a Great Place To Work®, Forward is investing in its employees, technology, and customer experience – with long-term success in mind every step of the way.

This role is focused on developing profitable strategies to mitigate fraud risk while supporting a low friction customer experience. The Risk Analyst investigates, creates, implements and validates various risk segmentation strategies and policies using complex data, advanced analytical, statistical, and profitability approaches. The role requires cross-collaboration with other teams and extensive use of data to derive insights and develop fraud risk strategies.

The Risk Analyst will leverage various data sources including but not limited to on-us performance, digital risk, identity verification, credit bureau, transactional, and alternative data to evaluate the risk of fraudulent applications for both new and repeat customers.

Both first and third-party fraud will be a focus for the analytics, that may include underwriting, portfolio monitoring, customer experience, and other ad hoc analysis. This position will have high visibility within the underwriting team and will be instrumental in mitigating risk.

In this role you will:

• Review accounts and fraud cases to identify risk-separating behaviors

• Extract data using SQL and perform ad hoc analysis

• Develop machine learning models using tools such as Python

• Optimize prompts for agentic AI to automate the detection of high-risk behavior and generate actionable outputs

• Design and monitor fraud mitigation strategies that minimize friction for legitimate applicants, including oversight of step-up and manual review processes

• Develop and execute strategies to identify and investigate accounts opened under suspected ID theft or unauthorized 3rd party, coordinating with various teams to reduce fraud claims

• Oversee relationships and integrations with external data providers and scoring vendors

• Conduct root cause analysis on early defaults and fraud claims defects

• Develop and maintain reports to measure progress against strategic business goals

• Work with autonomy and be proactive in identifying opportunities

• Partner with underwriting, operations, analytics, portfolio strategy, customer experience, legal and compliance

Why you should apply:

• Mission driven company: Forward is a trusted source of fast, flexible funding for small businesses that have often been underserved by traditional financing options. When you join the team, you will help ensure all small businesses have access to the financial support they need to succeed.

• Flexibility is a top priority: Our employees are empowered to choose where they want to work (whether that’s from home, in the office, or a combination of both) with flexible hours.

Role Requirements:

• Sound knowledge of working with large datasets using SQL and Python

• Strong background in building, developing and maintaining reporting in Tableau

• A hands-on attitude with the ability to prioritize and multitask deliverables

• Excellent communication and organizational skills

• 3+ years of analytical experience in consumer or business lending, preferably in credit risk or fraud

Total Rewards:

Additionally, we offer a comprehensive total rewards package, including but not limited to: medical, dental, vision, commuter benefits, a flexible time-off policy, paid parental leave, 401k match for US employees, wellness reimbursement, volunteering days, annual professional development budget, and charitable donation match.

Forward is proud to be a remote-first company, keeping workplace flexibility a top priority for our employees. As a business, we are focused on impact; we are more concerned with your contributions to the success of the company than where you get your work done. To help facilitate in-person collaboration, employees are welcome to work from one of our premiere office locations.

When we aren’t collaborating to drive business and support our customers, we’re finding virtual and in-person ways to get to know our colleagues, celebrate team wins, and have fun together!