Head of Compliance and Risk (UK)

We hire successful builders with founder-like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role-related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and . You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.operating principles

You’re humble and collaborative; turn zero-to-one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high-visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.

About the team:

Risk Operations is a global 1LOD team responsible for the Acquiring, Issuing and Credit Risk domains. The team handles cases and investigations across product domains, working closely with 2LOD and Commercial teams to ensure that Airwallex operates within its risk appetite. The team is passionate about operational excellence and delivering an exceptional end-to-end customer experience.

What you’ll do:

As the Senior Director/Head of Risk Operations, you will lead a global team responsible for defining procedures and delivering operational excellence across new client onboarding, periodic review and in-life behaviour. You will ensure that Airwallex champions high standards for integrity, judgement and documentation in all aspects of risk operations.

Responsibilities:

Own the vision, strategy and execution for Risk Operations

Build, lead and develop high-performing a globally distributed team

Own the location and resourcing strategy of the team, solving for 24/7 coverage, quality of customer experience and cost efficiency

Create a repeatable & scalable operating rhythm, including clear OKRs

Take a data-driven approach to performance management

Strike the right balance between risk, customer experience and commercial impact, ensuring timely, high-quality decision making and communications

Drive continuous improvement in the quality of procedures, playbooks and control frameworks, aligned to Airwallex financial crime and fraud policies defined by 2LOD and partnering closely with Risk Product and Engineering

Ensure that Airwallex continues to improve the quality and consistency of documentation

Lead AI transformation of the Risk Operations team

This role will be based in either London or Singapore.

Proven experience, including senior leadership in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations in a rapidly growing regulated financial-services or payments/fintech business

Proven track record of scaling Risk Operations (at least 2 of Payments, Issuing and Credit) across multiple geographies, and of building globally consistent performance

Background in Fraud Ops and ATO risk control

Strong commercial and analytical judgement - comfortable framing decisions in unit economics, scalability and return on investment

Track record of operating at the Operations-Product-Risk intersection and driving cross-functional outcomes without full reporting-line authority

Demonstrated delivery of automation/AI-led transformation in an operations setting

Evidence of big data/analytics (including SQL, DBX and BI tooling)

Preferred experience:

Cross-border payments; multi-entity, multi-licence environments

Experience across Payments, Issuing and Credit Risk

Comfort with a highly technical, API-first product

Exposure to IPO readiness / public-company control environments

Top-tier consulting or operator-investor background (structured thinking under ambiguity)

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 250,000 businesses worldwide - including Brex, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more - with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.