About

Bridging complex technical execution and high-level business strategy.

As a payments and financial-services strategy leader with nearly a decade of experience, I specialize in bridging the gap between complex technical execution and high-level business strategy. I am passionate about leading cross-functional teams to shape portfolio decisions, optimize risk, and scale solutions across U.S. and international markets.

Currently, I am a Business Manager for Trade Credit at Capital One, where I own the end-to-end development of portfolio-monitoring frameworks and customer management strategies. Previously, in Capital One's Commercial Card division, I led fraud strategy initiatives that successfully reduced false positives by 20% while preserving core fraud-control coverage and improving operational efficiency.

My background is built on a dual foundation of hard engineering and strategic management. Before earning my MBA from NYU Stern, where I specialized in Strategy and Finance, I led financial-services technology teams at Accenture and Wipro. I directed the technical execution for a new credit-card portfolio launch that drove 100,000+ acquisitions in its first year, and I have led the design and delivery of large-scale cloud-migration and API-integration programs. Because of this, I speak both “business” and “engineering”—comfortably translating SQL, Python, and system architectures into executive decisions and go-to-market strategies.

Outside of my day-to-day work, I am deeply committed to mentorship and community impact. I actively mentor early-career analysts on structured problem-solving, and I have led digital and financial-literacy programs for underserved youth. To recharge, you can usually find me writing short stories, performing in street theatre, or competing in dance.

Core Expertise

Strategy & Risk: Payments & Credit Strategy, Fraud & Risk Analytics, Portfolio & Customer Management, Operating-Model Design, Go-to-Market Strategy.

Technology & Execution: Business Transformation, Agile Delivery (Certified ScrumMaster), API Integrations, Process Automation.

Technical Tools: Financial Modeling, SQL, Python.

Analytical Explorations

Analytical projects exploring strategy, product, and decision-making questions relevant to financial services and technology.

AI & Decision Support

Personal Finance Assistant - AI Agent

An AI-powered tool for managing personal finances with features like budget recommendations, expense categorization, and forecasting.

Business & Financial Modeling

Stock Analysis and Forecasting Tool

This project is a learning tool developed to analyze and forecast stock data using Python.

Financial Forecasting and Budgeting Tool

This project is a learning tool developed to demonstrate the process of financial forecasting, budgeting, and analysis.

Valuation Toolkit

This project is a financial valuation toolkit developed as a learning tool to help understand the concepts and calculations used in discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, sensitivity analysis, and Monte Carlo simulation.

Advanced Analytical Models

Statistical Arbitrage Strategy with Cointegration

This is a simple Python program to understand the basics of Statistical Arbitrage (Stat Arb).

Market Maker Simulation

This repository contains Python scripts that simulate a market maker's behavior, focusing on buying and selling assets at prices around a "fair value," with inventory and risk management.

Analytics Tooling

Data Analysis Tool

A Python-based GUI application for data analysis and visualization using tkinter.

Python

Personal Expense Tracker

A Python tool to manage, analyze, and visualize expenses.

Resume

Click here to open as PDF

Niraj D’Souza

Herndon, VA mail@nirajdsouza.com linkedin.com/in/nirajdsouza

Payments & Credit Strategy | Portfolio & Customer Management | Risk & Transformation

Summary

Payments and financial services strategy leader with 9+ years of experience spanning credit-card launches, fraud optimization, trade-credit customer management, and technology transformation. NYU Stern MBA with a track record of leading cross-functional teams, shaping portfolio and operating decisions, and scaling solutions across U.S. and international markets.

Professional Experience

Capital One

McLean, VA

Business Manager, Trade Credit - Customer Management — Jun 2026 - Present

  • Building portfolio-monitoring and governance frameworks across credit lines, delinquency, and recourse programs, defining merchant segmentation, performance thresholds, and escalation requirements.
  • Developing a risk-based inactive-account policy covering inactivity criteria, customer treatment, account reactivation, exceptions, and cross-functional decision governance.

Business Manager, Commercial Card Fraud Strategy — Feb 2025 - Jun 2026

  • Led the review and prioritization of 60+ fraud and risk-mitigation rules across commercial-card portfolios, identifying redundancies and performance gaps to reduce false positives by 20% while preserving core fraud-control coverage.
  • Redesigned decision workflows and rule-governance processes with product, data science, and operations leaders, reducing manual handoffs, clarifying accountability, and improving operational efficiency by 15%.
  • Spearheaded development of an automated control to remove temporary credit-rating overrides within required service levels, reducing manual dependency and strengthening compliance with fraud-control requirements.
  • Presented portfolio findings and recommendations to senior leaders, shaping the prioritization of control enhancements and automation initiatives across commercial-card fraud.

New York Wealth Planning Group (NYWPG)

New York, NY

MBA Summer Intern, Product Strategy & Business Development — May 2023 - Aug 2023

  • Segmented the market and assessed competitors across three customer groups, identifying growth opportunities and refining the positioning and go-to-market strategy for the firm’s health-insurance business.
  • Developed partnership-led customer-acquisition initiatives projected to increase campaign conversion by 25% and expand the active customer base by 20%.
  • Presented growth and scaling recommendations to senior leadership, informing the evaluation of partnership channels, customer targeting, and go-to-market priorities.

Accenture

Mumbai, India

Application Development Team Lead — Nov 2020 - Aug 2022

Promoted from Application Development Senior Analyst within one year

  • Led an eight-member technology team through the design, development, testing, and production launch of systems supporting a new credit-card portfolio, including product configuration, risk-rule implementation, system integrations, and post-launch monitoring.
  • Directed technical execution that supported more than 100,000 card acquisitions during the first year and enabled a 40% relative improvement in approval rates.
  • Led the design and delivery of 41 MuleSoft APIs, coordinating development, code reviews, testing, defect resolution, and production releases for initiatives representing $330,000 in engagement revenue.
  • Introduced Agile engineering practices, sprint governance, and clearer ownership across development and business teams, reducing delivery turnaround times by 30% and improving release predictability.

Wipro Limited

Pune, India

Senior Project Engineer, Financial Services — Dec 2014 - Nov 2020

Promoted from Software Developer

  • Delivered a cloud-migration program across eight international markets, reducing capital expenditure by 30% and deployment time by 40%.
  • Automated recurring application-maintenance processes, generating $54,000 in annualized savings and improving system availability by 15%.
  • Co-designed an enterprise integration prototype with client technology leaders that was subsequently adopted and scaled across the broader organization.

Education

New York University - Leonard N. Stern School of Business

New York, NY

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Specializations in Strategy, Finance, and Management — May 2024

  • Dean’s List | GMAT: 760
  • Vice President, Management Consulting Association • Vice President, South Asian Business Association at Stern

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT)

Master of Technology in Information Technology — May 2019

University of Mumbai - SIES College

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology — May 2014

Core Expertise & Tools

  • Strategy & Operations: Payments and Credit Strategy, Portfolio and Customer Management, Fraud and Risk Analytics, Product and Market Launches, Operating-Model Design, Process Automation, Strategic Decision Support
  • Analytics & Delivery: Financial Modeling, SQL, Python, Agile Delivery
  • Certification: Certified ScrumMaster

Leadership & Community

  • Led digital and financial-literacy programs for underserved youth through Fly Higher India.
  • Mentored 10+ early-career analysts and graduate students on structured problem-solving, professional development, and career transitions.
  • Co-founded and served as Content Editor of the SIES Skyline student publication, producing eight editions reaching more than 700 students; the publication remains active more than a decade later.