--- title: 'Head of Risk Operations at Airwallex' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-risk-operations-airwallex-london-xrq8ngsy4c9y' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-11' --- # Head of Risk Operations at Airwallex - **Company:** [Airwallex](https://feeny.ai/companies/airwallex) - **Location:** London, United Kingdom - **Employment:** full-time - **Posted:** 2026-08-07 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-11 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex/b8796b93-6cf4-4621-9db2-2db949ef0200 ## 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. 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. ## How you'll make impact You'll set the vision, strategy and execution for Risk Operations across Acquiring, Issuing and Credit Risk, leading a global team that supports onboarding, periodic review and in-life behaviour. - Build a scalable operating model with clear OKRs, data-driven performance management and the resourcing strategy needed to balance 24/7 coverage, customer experience and cost efficiency. - Raise the quality and consistency of procedures, playbooks, control frameworks and documentation, partnering closely with 2LOD, Risk Product, Engineering and Commercial teams to make timely, high-quality decisions within Airwallex's risk appetite. - Lead the team's AI and automation transformation while keeping integrity, judgement and operational excellence at the centre of how we work. You'll work from our London office three days a week. ## What we're looking for Essentials - Proven experience, including senior leadership in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations within a rapidly growing regulated financial-services, payments or fintech business. - A track record of scaling Risk Operations across at least two of Payments, Issuing and Credit Risk across multiple geographies, while building globally consistent performance. - A background in Fraud Operations and account takeover risk control. - Strong commercial and analytical judgement, with the ability to frame decisions through unit economics, scalability and return on investment. - Experience operating at the intersection of Operations, Product and Risk, and driving cross-functional outcomes without full reporting-line authority. - Demonstrated delivery of automation or AI-led transformation in an operations setting. - Experience using big data and analytics tools, including SQL, Databricks and BI tooling. ## Preferred - Experience with cross-border payments and multi-entity, multi-licence environments. - Experience across Payments, Issuing and Credit Risk. - Comfort working with highly technical, API-first products. - Exposure to IPO readiness or public-company control environments. - A top-tier consulting or operator-investor background, with structured thinking under ambiguity. You'll thrive here if - You're comfortable owning the roadmap yourself. - 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 know when to align and when to just decide. Collaboration isn't a way to avoid accountability. - You connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details. Learn more about your team Operations at Airwallex is where global ambition gets translated into systems that actually hold at scale. This team runs the high-stakes flows businesses depend on — payments, accounts, and cross-border transactions. The work sits at the intersection of product, compliance, and customer experience. The problems are rarely simple: balancing speed with rigor, global consistency with local reality, and immediate execution with the stronger systems a growing company needs next. It's a function for operators with a builder mentality: trusted to take ownership, work cross-functionally with product and risk, and create new processes for things that have not existed before. If you want to help build the operational backbone of a global financial platform, this is work that keeps the whole machine moving. 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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