Discover’s Data Manager Helps Foil Credit Card Fraud

To prevent unauthorized transactions, IEEE Senior Member Pankaj Gupta develops tools using data integration, artificial intelligence, machine learningand real-time account monitoring. Gupta is a manager of data engineering and analytics at Discover Financial Services, based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“The innovations developed by my fraud department have helped my organization respond more quickly to threats and more easily adapt to future needs,” he says.

This year he received the Discover award Presidential Awardthe highest recognition of the company's employees. It is awarded to those who have achieved outstanding business results by demonstrating the company's values.

Gupta also became a guest member Forbes Technology CouncilA community of experienced leaders from diverse industries, selected based on their professional accomplishments and leadership experience.

He says he enjoys his job but says he never intended to work in financial services, a field in which he has built a nearly two-decade career.

As a child, he was curious about how everything worked, and he took apart gadgets his father brought it home.

“My father worked at BSNLgovernment telecom organization, and often took me to his office,” says Gupta. — There I observed the work of telephones and telecom operators making long-distance calls. We even had several old, non-working phones lying around at home.”

According to him, at school he liked to participate in olympiads and exhibitions in natural sciences and mathematics.

Given his curiosity and problem-solving skills, his teachers encouraged him to study engineering. He was most interested in studying electrical engineering due to his interest in power substations, which he and his father inspected.

“Growing up in a small town [Dongargarh, which is famous for the Bamleshwari Temple, a popular Hindu pilgrimage site]“I saw how technology can help solve problems and make people’s lives better,” he says.

He said he was also fascinated by the massive machinery of the nearby steel mill, its chimneys and the constant activity around them.

“I noticed that everything seemed to work in a coordinated manner. Seeing such complex engineering in action at such a young age sparked my interest in technology,” he says. “This encounter inspired me to pursue a career in electrical engineering.”

In 2002, he enrolled in the EE program at Christian College of Engineering and Technologyin Bhilai, India180 minutes by train one way. He left at 5 am and returned at 6:30 pm. During his senior year, he said, his family began to struggle financially, so his priority was to find a job immediately after graduation to support them.

In India, universities conduct graduate placement events on campus. Gupta says he was lucky enough to receive a job offer from an Indian IT company Satyam Computer Serviceswhich doesn't exist now. He started working there in 2006 after earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical and electrical engineering. Satyam assigned him to work on software for a financial services company.

That's when he turned to software development.

Gupta says that although software development was not his favorite career, it allowed him to support himself and his parents.

He still has a soft spot for electrical engineering, he says, but he hasn't changed fields or industries in the last 18 years.

His work with various financial institutions has allowed him to travel the world and work in other countries including Germany And United Kingdomhe says. United States this is the fourth country where he has worked.

“It was an exciting journey, learning about different cultures and working techniques,” he says.

Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to combat fraud

Gupta left Satyam in 2011 to join MphasisIT solutions company based in Bangalore, India as a Senior Software Developer specializing in Data Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL). A year later he left for Wipro Technologies in Bangalore. As a technical manager, he was appointed as a consultant for Capital One in Bangalore at the offshore development center. He led a team of 10 employees working on data integration projects, including common platforms.

In 2017, he moved to the United States to work as an assistant vice president at the company. JP Morgan Chase in Jersey City, New Jersey. He helped build a world-class analytics platform and modernize the bank's reporting systems. He has also worked on systems that use a zero trust security approach, which he describes as an approach where banks Do not automatically trust any user or system. Instead, they verify every transaction.

“This greatly reduces the risk of fraud or unauthorized access,” he says.

He has also developed scalable data partitioning techniques that organize and separate large amounts of information into more manageable pieces.

“I believe that as AI evolves, other innovations will evolve.”

“This allows the system to process data faster, handle growth without slowing down, and support real-time decision making,” he says. “These innovations have helped my organization respond to threats faster.”

He joined Discover in 2019 and rose from Principal Data Engineer on the Data and Analytics team to Data Engineering Manager. He has developed artificial intelligence data pipelines to train models to make automated decisions in real time.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning systems can prevent fraudulent transactions by collecting information about a customer's typical financial habits over time, such as whether banking transactions are done online or through an app, what time of day transactions occur and the typical amount paid to creditors. The system is then trained to look for anomalies.

Simply put, the system assigns a risk score to each transaction, usually on a scale based on patterns learned, Gupta says. If the score exceeds a certain threshold, the bank can take preventive measures. If, for example, there was an unusual purchase in a location far from where the customer lives, the bank will send a message to the customer trying to check whether the transaction is legitimate. If the customer does not acknowledge the purchase, the bank blocks the transaction.

Stay connected with technical experts

Gupta joined IEEE in 2023 “to connect to a global network of technology professionals and stay abreast of the latest advances in engineering and computing,” he says. Later that year he was promoted to senior member.

“Membership has helped me gain access to world-class research through IEEE Xplore Digital Library“, he says. “It also gave me the opportunity to be present conferences and share our experiences with the wider engineering community.”

Impact of AI on Engineering

His advice to young engineers is to stay curious and keep learning.

“Technology changes very quickly,” he says. “What works now may change in six months, so adaptability is your greatest strength.”

He predicts that AI agents will eventually take on repetitive tasks, such as those related to automationcoding and programming. Engineers will be needed most in construction, he said. artificial intelligence models and train them.

“Engineers will find significant growth opportunities in these areas,” he says. “I believe that as AI evolves, other innovations will evolve.

“Focus on solving real problems, not just finding solutions for their own sake.

“Build your professional network and seek out mentors who can help you solve both technical and career problems.”