Director, Regulatory Compliance, Americas

About Airwallex

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 100,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, 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 1,500 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech located across more than 20 offices across the globe. Valued at US$5.6 billion and backed by world-leading investors including Sequoia, Lone Pine, Greenoaks, DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Mastercard, 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.

About the team

The Legal, Risk & Compliance (LRC) team at Airwallex is a collaborative group of legal minds and risk management experts. We're passionate about safeguarding Airwallex's operations, fostering a culture of compliance and ethical conduct, and ensuring we navigate the global financial landscape with integrity. We provide expert guidance and support to all areas of the business, proactively identifying, mitigating, and managing legal and financial risks.

What you’ll do

This is a perfect opportunity for an ambitious candidate looking to build out and enhance the compliance and 2LoD function of a rapidly scaling global FinTech. You’ll implement tools, systems and processes to enhance our current compliance programs, and develop compliance programs for our new US broker-dealer and operations in Canada, Mexico and Brazil. This is a role for someone who likes to build and who is a problem solver - you’re someone who easily identifies patterns, trends or inefficiencies and can develop practical, effective solutions. You are independant and self-motivated but an effective team-builder and collaborator. You can get into the weeds of an issue, but know how to pull up and provide crisp, concise, actionable communications for senior leaders. 

This role is based in San Francisco or New York City.

Responsibilities:

• Supervising our Regulatory Compliance Manager who maintains our 50-state MTL compliance program

• Building a compliance program for our new US broker-dealer

• Developing and overseeing compliance efforts for the company’s licensed payments operations in Canada, Mexico and Brazil

• Coordinating with peers in EMEA and APAC to ensure alignment with global compliance efforts

• Identifying opportunities to use automation, RegTech, genAi and other tools to enhance the quality and efficiency of our Americas compliance efforts 

• Owning the second line of defense for our regulatory compliance risks in the Americas, including ensuring that policies embody the company’s risk appetite and effectively guide first line in managing risks

• Being an advocate for practical approaches to compliance that support the company’s expanding geographical and product scope 

• Managing the development or updating of manuals, policies and procedures to ensure compliance with laws and regulations for the company’s Americas operations

• Monitoring reporting on and responding to regulatory compliance trends and developments in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil

• Liaising with local board members and senior stakeholders of the Airwallex group, located around the world

• Managing external counsel and consultants on regulatory compliance matters

• Developing and managing Airwallex’s regulatory submissions and filings

• Communicating regulatory requirements to internal stakeholders

• Supporting government relations outreach to legislators and regulatory agencies

Who you are

We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience

• Strong regulatory experience gained in the fintech industry, reputable law firms or financial institutions

• Sound knowledge of the US financial services regulatory environment

• Expertise in broker-dealer compliance 

• Experience managing a compliance function, including people management 

• Demonstrated experience working cross-functionally or in a matrix organization

Preferred qualifications:

• Sound knowledge of the US payment services regulations and related legislation, including Money Transmission Licensing (MTL) and related requirements 

• Familiarity with the payments regulation in Canada, Mexico and/or Brazil

• Experience developing and/or deploying RegTech tools

• Experience engaging with the SEC and FINRA

Equal opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters.  Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s).  Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.