Join a Challenger
Being a traditional bank just isn’t our thing. We are big believers in innovating the banking experience because we believe Canadians deserve better options, and we challenge ourselves and our teams to creatively transform what’s possible in banking. Our team is made up of inquisitive and agile minds that find smarter ways of doing things. If you’re not afraid of taking on big challenges and redefining the future, you belong with us. You’ll get to work with people who will encourage you to reach new heights. We like to keep things fun, ask questions and learn together.
We are a big (and growing!) family. Overall we serve more than 670,000 people across Canada through Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank™, and have been around for more than 50 years. Equitable Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Concentra Bank, supports credit unions across Canada that serve more than six million members. Together we have over $125 billion in combined assets under management and administration, with a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives.
Our customers have named our EQ Bank digital platform (eqbank.ca) one of the top banks in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks list since 2021.
The Work
Reporting to the Vice-President, Payments & Fraud Mitigation, the Associate Director, Fraud Operations, is responsible for building teams, processes, and tools to protect EQ Bank and its customers from fraudulent activity and losses while ensuring a best-in-class experience for legitimate customers.
The Associate Director, Fraud Operations, leads efforts to identify, investigate, prevent & recover from different fraudulent activities including fraudulent applications, account takeovers and transactional fraud. As part of the Fraud Mitigation 1st Line, this individual will build a best-in-class Fraud Operations team, balancing industry fraud threats with the bank’s evolving needs. Key responsibilities include close collaboration with Fraud Strategy to enhance fraud detection and with Product, Operations, and Technology teams to strengthen fraud prevention on the digital platform. This role also drives automation for scalability, works with Equitable Bank’s business lines, external vendors, and partners closely with Compliance and Risk teams to reinforce security across the bank.
The Core Responsibilities!
- Accountable for all financial crimes and fraud operations, enhancing operational excellence and increasing efficiencies through business process improvement and automation.
- Lead the development, management and ongoing refinement of Financial Crime Management programs and systems to reduce financial losses; drive the implementation and change management of a new fraud management system together with Fraud Strategy.
- Ensure optimal operation of the Fraud department including overseeing volume monitoring, quality assurance, organization and workflow design, hiring, scheduling, training, coaching and on-the-job assistance of its team members. Set performance standards, review performance and provide feedback.
- Own forecasting and staffing budget for the Fraud Operations team to maintain balance between fraud mitigation, customer experience, and prudent cost management.
- Provide Financial Crime Prevention leadership and execution expertise, working with stakeholders in Digital Banking
- Represent EQ Bank at industry level, liaison with law enforcement and other investigative bodies.
- Drive underlying fraud, security, and authentication portion of EQ Bank roadmap, in conjunction with Channel/Product management colleagues. This roadmap affects the customer experience of the entire EQ Bank entire customer base.
- Ensure all PCMLTFA (Anti-Money Laundering, Know Your Customer) regulations are met; work closely with Compliance on reporting and escalating suspicious and reportable activity.
- Identify and implement different mechanisms and countermeasures to determine financial crimes, risk and controls, and how gaps can lead to undue financial crime risk.
- Leverage available advanced risk analytics and intelligence technologies such as behavioral modeling, machine learning, network analysis and visualizations to detect and prevent financial crimes in near real time; work closely with Fraud Strategy team to implement data strategies.
- Lead major crime fraud investigations; Provide subject matter expertise and advice to fraud analysts to assist in specific diagnosis, determining the nature of the potential fraud incident and making decisions on appropriate resolution path, and in support of day to day diagnostic investigation on fraud patterns.
- Oversee day-to-day operational fraud reporting; provides subject matter expert input into consolidated line of business management reporting to ERM.
- Leverage domain expertise to develop and deploy a vision to optimize the fraud losses and partners with business unit leaders to influence decisions to drive an aligned vision regarding fraud controls and capabilities for new products, services and emerging channels
- Manage external partnerships with vendors, clearly representing Equitable Bank’s interests and ensures third parties deliver on Equitable Bank’s objectives and continuously give the level of support required
- Provide support across all lines of business as required (Operations, Backoffice, AML/Compliance, etc.).
Let's Talk About You!
- 8+ years of experience in financial services fraud with a focus on digital banking.
- Significant people leadership experience; proven experience building and scaling large teams as a leader of other managers.
- Empathetic leader skilled at collaborating with a diverse team to balance KPI-driven performance with exceptional customer experience.
- ACFE accreditation.
- Undergraduate degree .
- Excellent problem-solving & critical thinking skills – a keen ability to connect discrete data points, exercise judgment, and spot trends as demonstrated through experience in proactively preventing and detecting fraud attempts.
- Experience with data analysis tools and SQL databases. Specific experience with SQL Server is an asset.
- Ability to work under pressure and time constraints with composure.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills for SVP audience, including strong data presentation/visualization skills.
- Vendor management (contract negotiation, SLA management).
- Participation in fraud prevention/detection professional organizations, peer groups, and public/private partnerships.
- May be required to be on call, and to work occasional weekend/holiday/evening hours.
What we offer [For full-time permanent roles]
💰 Competitive discretionary bonus
✨ Market leading RRSP match program
🩺 Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits
📝 Employee Share Purchase Plan
👶🏽 Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one
🏝 Generous vacation policy and personal days
🖥 Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues
🎓 Annual professional development allowance and a comprehensive Career Development program
💛 A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience
Equitable Bank is deeply committed to inclusion. Our organization is stronger and our employees thrive when we honour and celebrate everyone’s diverse experiences and perspectives. In tandem with that commitment, we support and encourage our staff to grow not just in their career path, but personally as well.
We commit to providing a barrier-free recruitment process and work environment for all applicants. Please let us know of any accommodations needed so that you can bring your best self to the application process and beyond. All candidates considered for hire must successfully pass a criminal background check and credit check to qualify for hire. While we appreciate your interest in applying, an Equitable recruiter will only contact leading candidates whose skills and qualifications closely match the requirements of the position.
We can’t wait to get to know you!
