--- title: 'Associate Director, KYC at Airwallex' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/associate-director-kyc-airwallex-london-frbkxkjda5w7' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-11' --- # Associate Director, KYC at Airwallex - **Company:** [Airwallex](https://feeny.ai/companies/airwallex) - **Location:** London, United Kingdom - **Employment:** full-time - **Posted:** 2026-10-20 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-11 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex/8ddc2d28-8c04-46b3-a4fa-30e39ea2f5dc ## Job description ## About Airwallex Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 675,000 businesses, including McLaren Racing, Qantas, SHEIN, and TikTok, use us, directly or through our platform partners, to run their financial operations or build and monetize financial products of their own. We started in Melbourne in 2015 to build the infrastructure global commerce runs on. We're the regulated backbone behind global payments: not by accident, but by design. A decade plus, 85+ licenses, and a financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. We're co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, with more than 2,700 people across 27 offices. We hire builders with founder-level energy, people who move fast with good judgment, dig in with real curiosity, and make calls from first principles rather than waiting to be told what to do. Read our[operating principles](https://www.airwallex.com/en-us/operating-principles) to see it in full. ## How you'll make impact You'll lead second-line oversight of Airwallex's global KYC, Enhanced Due Diligence and periodic review frameworks, providing independent challenge, governance and policy execution across the Financial Crime Compliance function. You'll partner with KYC Operations and Analysts to strengthen quality, consistency and risk-based decision-making across onboarding and ongoing customer reviews, while overseeing Customer Risk Acceptance reviews and sign-offs for complex and higher-risk customers. - Own and continuously elevate Airwallex’s global KYC strategy, policy framework, and second-line governance across all operating jurisdictions. - Own independent second-line oversight across global KYC, Enhanced Due Diligence and periodic review functional controls and operational activities. - Own KYC policy and procedure development and maintenance, with primary authority for providing interpretive guidance and direction to first line operations and second line advisory teams on application of global and regional requirements as part of onboarding and ongoing reviews. - Partner with KYC Operations in development and enhancement of KYC control processes, driving performance of high quality onboarding and ongoing customer reviews at the required standard, provide direction and oversight to production of meaningful management information to ensure visibility and support informed decision making for FCC senior management. Drive stronger quality, consistency and risk-based decision-making across customer onboarding and ongoing reviews. - Improve the quality of Customer Risk Acceptance reviews by challenging risk identification, testing mitigations and producing clear, decision-ready recommendations. - Advise Commercial and Sales teams on complex deal structures, novel business models and high-risk customer profiles. - Partner with Product, Data and Engineering to embed regulatory controls, decision frameworks and AI-enabled improvements into scalable systems and workflows, including definition of KYC data requirements. - Maintain high standards of compliance documentation, quality assurance and audit readiness while adapting KYC and AML standards to global regulatory and enforcement developments. You'll primarily work remotely, aligned toour Birmingham office, with occasional in office presence in Birmingham or London to support team meetings and regulatory engagement. ## What we're looking for Essentials - 10+ years of relevant AML/KYC experience focused on complex corporate clients, financial institutions or fintech platforms. - A strong track record designing, managing and governing scalable second-line KYC frameworks. - 3+ years' experience leading, mentoring or managing compliance teams, with a focus on operational rigor, analytical excellence and continuous improvement. - Demonstrated experience providing second-line oversight, independent challenge and risk-based decision-making across KYC, Enhanced Due Diligence and periodic review activities. - Experience supporting regulatory examination processes and engagement. - Experience reviewing or approving Customer Risk Acceptance documentation, identifying risk, assessing mitigations and producing clear, decision-ready recommendations. - Experience overseeing compliance reviews or walkthroughs for complex corporate, embedded finance or platform clients. - Proven ability to advise senior Commercial and Sales stakeholders on complex deal structures, novel business models and high-risk customer profiles. - Proven ability to partner with Product, Engineering, Data and Business stakeholders to translate compliance requirements into scalable, automated workflows. - Strong leadership, communication and relationship management skills, with the ability to explain complex compliance decisions clearly to senior executives, regulatory authorities and external partners. - Bachelor's degree required. ## Preferred - Experience leveraging or evaluating AI-enabled tools in compliance or KYC workflows, with an understanding of responsible implementation, regulatory defensibility and internal controls. - Experience in FinTech, global cross-border payments, RegTech, management consulting or digital asset environments. - CAMS, CFCS, CFE or equivalent industry certification. - A quantitative, technical, legal or data-oriented degree. - Familiarity with Google Workspace, Slack, Mac environments, modern data tools and AI-assisted workflow platforms. - Experience monitoring regulatory, enforcement and industry developments across cross-border payments, global banking or digital assets. You'll thrive here if - You own the outcome and you don't wait for permission to fix what's broken. - You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway. - You've operated in a compliance-heavy environment and know how to move fast without cutting the corners that matter. - You communicate clearly and directly across cultures, and you're thoughtful about how context shifts meaning across borders. - You connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details. Learn more about your team Regulatory & Compliance is where we build the trust, discipline, and operational resilience required to scale a generational financial platform. As Airwallex grows across 30+ markets, this team turns regulatory complexity into strategic control. You'll lead compliance, enterprise risk, and regulatory engagement in a way that protects the business while letting it move with conviction. Our ambition goes beyond meeting expectations: we're building a risk posture that acts as a competitive moat, grounded in ownership, proactive regulatory partnerships, and frameworks that scale globally while respecting local nuance. It's a team for strategic operators with sharp judgment, high standards, and the confidence to execute at pace in a high-stakes environment. You'll thrive here if you can balance rigor with progress and influence across functions. If you want to architect the benchmark for trust and resilience in global finance, your work here will have a massive impact. Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @[airwallex.com](http://airwallex.com) email address. Please apply only through [careers.airwallex.com](http://careers.airwallex.com) or our official LinkedIn page. 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. ## 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. ## About Airwallex ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Airwallex is a financial technology company building a unified global payments and banking platform that helps businesses manage cross-border payments, treasury, spend, and financial operations through proprietary infrastructure, software, and AI. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series G) - **Headquarters**: Dual headquarters in Singapore and San Francisco, USA; founded in Melbourne, Australia - **Founded**: 2015 - **Founders**: Jack Zhang (CEO), Lucy Liu, Max Li, Xijing Dai, and Ron Li ## Core Business - Primary industry: Financial Services / Payments / Fintech Infrastructure - Target customers: B2B, primarily serving SMBs, scaling enterprises, digital platforms, and marketplaces globally - Mission or purpose statement: "Build the future of global banking" — they aim to replace legacy, fragmented banking systems with a borderless, intelligent, real-time financial operating system for modern businesses. ## Products & Services - **[Business Accounts]**: Multi-currency global accounts to receive, hold, and manage funds in 20+ currencies, with local account details for key markets. - **[Payments]**: Global payment acceptance via 160+ local payment methods, low-code checkout, and programmatic payout capabilities to 200+ countries. - **[Spend / Corporate Cards]**: Multi-currency corporate and employee cards with customisable spend controls, designed for global teams. - **[Expense Management]**: A platform to track, control, and reconcile global business expenses, including employee reimbursements. - **[Billing & Subscription Management]**: A billing platform for usage-based and subscription pricing models, supporting AI companies and complex revenue workflows. - **[Platform APIs]**: API-first infrastructure enabling businesses to embed financial services (accounts, payments, FX, card issuing) into their own products. - **[FX & Treasury]**: Interbank foreign exchange rates and tools to intelligently manage currency risk across markets. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: US$11 billion (latest valuation in 2025, following a fresh investment round). - **Key Metric**: US$1.8 billion in total funding raised; Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) surpassed US$1 billion by 2025. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Series G investors include prominent global venture capital firms (specific names not listed in source but backed by top-tier VCs); serves over 200,000 businesses including TikTok, Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, and SHEIN. - **Growth Signals**: - US$287 billion in global payments processed (USD). - 92% of transfers settled same-day, 50% processed instantly. - Over 85 financial licenses and registrations globally. - Team of ~2,300 people across 27 offices internationally. - Dual-headquarters model (Singapore + San Francisco) adopted in 2025 to support next phase of growth. ## Competitive Advantages - Proprietary, API-first infrastructure built from scratch (not riding legacy banking rails), enabling faster, cheaper, and more transparent cross-border transactions. - Unified platform combining banking, payments, spend management, billing, and FX — reducing the need for multiple vendors. - Deep AI integration across the platform to automate financial operations and provide intelligent insights. - Extensive regulatory licensing (85+ licenses) across major markets, creating a high barrier to entry. - Strong network effects: serves both direct businesses and platforms/marketplaces that embed Airwallex into their offerings. ## Strategic Focus - Continue scaling the platform to support the rapid growth of AI-native companies and usage-based business models (highlighted by the launch of their global billing platform). - Expand the dual-headquarters presence to tap into the largest tech talent markets (San Francisco and Singapore). - Invest heavily in AI to build "interconnected, intelligent financial systems where money, data, and decisions move together." - Deepen product capabilities to automate financial operations end-to-end for global businesses. ## Why Work Here - High-growth, ambitious environment: described as "the most ambitious work of your career" by the company; founded in 2015 and already processing $287B in payments. - Global impact and scale: work on infrastructure used by 200,000+ businesses, from startups to enterprises like TikTok and SHEIN. - Hybrid/office culture: 27 offices globally (Melbourne, Singapore, San Francisco, London, Shanghai, Amsterdam, and more) offering opportunities to work across teams and locations. - Engineering-driven culture: heavy emphasis on building proprietary technology, AI, and developer-first products. - Notable perks: opportunity to work on a modern financial stack, exposure to cutting-edge AI/Fintech intersection, and a diverse, international team of "2,200 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech." ## Sources 1. [airwallex.com - Who We Are](https://www.airwallex.com/en-eu/who-we-are) 2. [airwallex.com - Global Platform](https://www.airwallex.com/global) 3. [careers.airwallex.com](https://careers.airwallex.com/) 4. [LinkedIn - Airwallex](https://www.linkedin.com/company/airwallex) 5. 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