---
title: 'Associate Director, Payments/Scheme Economics at Airwallex'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/associate-director-payments-scheme-economics-airwallex-london-wa267y5genjc'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-11'
---

# Associate Director, Payments/Scheme Economics at Airwallex

- **Company:** [Airwallex](https://feeny.ai/companies/airwallex)
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-09-12
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex/7bf590b2-a94e-4ba3-800c-309025c65c51

## 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 own the integrity, visibility and management of Airwallex's payment costs, starting with card scheme fees and interchange fees across Visa and Mastercard. You'll turn complex network rules into accurate configurations, financial insight and commercial decisions.

- Own payment-cost integrity across scheme fees, interchange and network rules, translating changes into clear financial, product and operational requirements.
- Build accurate fee tables, eligibility criteria and transaction-level logic with Product and Engineering, ensuring cost calculation, allocation and customer billing reflect current network rules.
- Develop models and analytics across markets, products, payment methods and transaction types to identify margin drivers, anomalies, leakage and opportunities to improve payment economics.
- Drive structural cost and margin optimisation through transaction qualification, BIN routing, cost configuration and other levers, while shaping pricing, product design, market launches and commercial strategy.
- Strengthen governance, testing, reconciliation and automated controls, comparing expected costs with actual network charges and driving root-cause resolution.
- Serve as the escalation point for scheme pricing, interchange and rule-related questions, working directly with Visa, Mastercard and other payment partners where required.

You'll work from our London office three days a week.

## What we're looking for

Essentials

- 7+ years of relevant experience in payments, acquiring, issuing, card networks, payment infrastructure or related roles, ideally within a global PSP, acquirer, scheme, issuer or fintech.
- Deep knowledge of card payment economics, particularly Visa and Mastercard interchange, scheme fees, transaction qualification and network rules.
- Strong ability to operationalise complex payment rules, translating fee schedules and network requirements into system logic, configurations and controls.
- Experience with payment cost systems and controls, including interchange tables, scheme fee logic, BIN-based rules, transaction attributes or similar payment configurations.
- Strong analytical and quantitative capabilities, including experience working with transaction-level data, economic modelling and reconciliation of expected versus actual payment costs.
- Strong commercial judgment, with the ability to connect detailed payment mechanics to pricing, product decisions and margin optimisation.
- Exceptional attention to detail and ownership, with the discipline required to manage complex rules where small errors can create meaningful financial impact at scale.
- Strong cross-functional execution, with the ability to work effectively across Product, Engineering, Finance, Data, Operations and external payment partners.

## Preferred

- Experience partnering directly with Visa, Mastercard or other payment networks.
- Experience applying AI or advanced analytics to rule interpretation, anomaly detection or payment-cost optimisation.

You'll thrive here if

- You own the outcome and you don't wait for permission to fix what's broken.
- You're comfortable with ambiguity. Give you a problem, not a prescription, and you'll run with it.
- You have experience at a fintech, payments company, or other highly regulated business.
- You connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details.
- You say what you mean. You're direct, but you lead with respect.

Learn more about your team Finance & Corporate Development helps Airwallex grow with control. We’re a trusted partner to the business, providing actionable insights on performance, supporting market and product expansion and helping to shape the future of our product. We ensure that Airwallex meets its financial reporting, tax and safeguarding obligations globally. We work with existing and prospective investors to raise capital and ensure it is deployed effectively. This is a team for people who want to reimagine how the CFO office works. We’re looking for founder-like energy, high integrity and a passion for technology. You’ll thrive here if you enjoy working cross-functionally, think from first principles and can balance speed of execution with analytical precision. 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. [jobs.ashbyhq.com - Airwallex](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex)

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