Risk Mitigation Lead in Customer Care

THE ROLE & THE TEAM
As the Risk Mitigation Lead, you will lead a vital function dedicated to safeguarding Zalando and its customers from complex threats. You will guide and develop a team of Specialists, who are responsible for managing high-risk customer contacts involving financial and reputational exposure, including fraud prevention, data privacy (GDPR) compliance, and critical escalations. Your leadership will be essential in ensuring high-quality resolution of sensitive cases, upholding rigorous decision-making standards (often beyond standard processes and using restricted tools), and protecting Zalando’s brand image across public channels. This strategic role involves fostering a culture of diligence, compliance, and decisive action, driving continuous improvement in risk detection and mitigation strategies, and collaborating closely with senior internal stakeholders such as Fraud Prevention, Privacy Law, Legal, Compliance, and Corporate Communications. You will be instrumental in maintaining a secure and trustworthy environment.
INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN
WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)
**Lead and Develop the team**: Manage, evaluate, and develop a team of 15 Risk Mitigation Experts, coaching them to effectively guide their specialist teams in handling high-stakes cases and to foster their professional growth in these critical areas. Own key people topics for your direct reports.
**Drive Excellence in High-Risk Operations**: Oversee daily operations within the Risk Mitigation function across assigned markets, ensuring your team members uphold the highest standards of quality, compliance (e.g., GDPR, internal policies), and procedural adherence in investigations and decision-making.
**Champion Performance & Strategic Risk Reduction**: Monitor, analyze, and strategically improve Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relevant to risk mitigation (e.g., fraud detection/prevention rates, data privacy compliance, accuracy of high-risk decisions, reduction in reputational incidents). Drive improvement initiatives to enhance risk management frameworks and processes.
**Steer Critical Incident Response & Strategic Initiatives**: Supervise and guide the handling of major incidents (e.g., significant fraud attempts, data privacy issues, PR crises), ensuring due process, effective communication, and timely resolution. Support your Manager and other senior leaders on cross-market strategic initiatives related to risk and compliance.
**Cultivate a Culture of Diligence & Resilience**: Champion team wellbeing and create an environment where meticulous attention to detail, ethical conduct, resilience, and calm decisiveness under pressure are core team strengths.
**Strategic Stakeholder Collaboration & Advisory**: Build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with senior internal stakeholders (Fraud Prevention, Privacy Law, Legal, Compliance, CorpComms). Act as a key point of contact and provide expert input on risk-related matters, contributing to the development and refinement of company-wide policies and procedures.
**Enhance Detection & Prevention Capabilities**: Drive improvements within your area of responsibility by fostering an environment where new risk patterns are proactively identified (leveraging insights from your teams) and collaboratively addressed with relevant expert teams.
WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF YOU HAVE
**Proven Leadership in a High-Stakes Environment**: Solid experience as a Team Lead, preferably in a risk management, fraud prevention, data privacy, escalations, or compliance-focused customer service environment. Demonstrable success in managing team performance in critical operations.
**Expertise in Developing Specialist Leaders**: A passion for developing others, with experience in coaching and mentoring Team Leads or senior specialists handling sensitive, complex, and high-consequence work.
**Deep Understanding of Risk & Compliance in CS**: Strong knowledge of customer service processes, with a significant affinity and demonstrable expertise in data privacy (GDPR), fraud prevention principles, and reputational risk management.
**Strategic Approach to Risk Mitigation**: Experience in planning and implementing projects or improvement initiatives related to risk management, compliance, or quality assurance in a customer-facing context.
**Exceptional Senior Stakeholder Management**: Proven ability to effectively collaborate with, influence, and provide expert advice to senior stakeholders in legal, compliance, communications, and technical fraud prevention teams.
**Crisis Management & Change Leadership**: High adaptability with experience leading teams through critical incidents or significant regulatory/procedural changes, maintaining composure and ensuring effective response.
**Outstanding Communication & Analytical Skills**: Strong verbal and written communication skills, with business fluency in English. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to make sound j