--- title: 'Senior Director EU & ME, MLRO at Airwallex' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-eu-me-mlro-airwallex-amsterdam-75esjmm6pch4' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-23' --- # Senior Director EU & ME, MLRO at Airwallex - **Company:** [Airwallex](https://feeny.ai/companies/airwallex) - **Location:** Amsterdam, Netherlands - **Employment:** full-time - **Posted:** 2026-03-24 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-23 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex/15a5d8b4-a5fd-4b4d-a933-387702221b75/application **Skills:** Financial Crime Compliance, EU AML Directives, Dutch Wwft, Lithuanian AML/CTF Law, Risk Assessment, Regulatory Reporting, Due Diligence, Big 4 Audit Experience, Consulting Experience, Fintech Industry Knowledge, Payments Industry Knowledge, French Language, German Language > The Associate Director of Financial Crime Compliance for the EU leads the regional FCC program in the Netherlands and Lithuania. This role involves managing the EU FCC team, ensuring compliance with EU Directives and local regulations, and driving global risk strategy while supporting product launches and audit proc... ## Job description ## 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 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. Attributes We Value 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 [operating principles](https://www.airwallex.com/us/operating-principles). You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor. 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 The Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) team at Airwallex is a strategically vital function operating under a clear Three Lines of Defence model. As the independent second line, FCC owns the global AML/CTF programme, sanctions framework, risk assessment methodology, and governance infrastructure across all global entities. As Airwallex scales into new markets and deepens its engagement with global regulatory bodies, we are building a world-class compliance organization capable of managing complex financial crime risks at scale. This is an environment where you will tackle high-impact challenges, shape global fintech risk strategies, and help establish foundations for long-term growth. ## What you'll do As the EU & ME Regional MLRO, you will lead and scale the regional compliance architecture across Europe and the Middle East, ensuring overseeing and directing absolute financial crime compliance and control operation while supporting regional business expansion. Leading a decentralized team of in-country MLROs, you will serve as the primary liaison for regional regulatory bodies, oversee localized compliance operations, and monitor shifting regulatory developments. You will act as the definitive second-line regional authority and escalation point, providing compliance sign-off on complex risk decisions, guiding new license applications, and advising on product and customer use cases. You will work closely with the global FCC leadership team, product executives, and regional business heads to ensure compliance is a strategic enabler of growth. This role is based in the EMEA region. ## Responsibilities - Lead, mentor, and scale the EMEA regional team of in-country MLROs, ensuring robust regulatory coverage, local compliance sovereignty, and consistent application of global standards across all active jurisdictions. - Act as the primary regulatory liaison for EMEA, managing day-to-day relationships, complex regulatory inquiries, and high-stakes examinations with regional central banks and financial authorities. - Oversee and execute local financial crime operations and reporting workflows in instances where regional regulatory mandates strictly require second-line actions to be performed in-country. - Monitor the regional regulatory landscape for shifting AML/CFT, sanctions, and financial crime developments, ensuring material updates are proactively analyzed and escalated to the Global Policy team for framework integration. - Serve as the definitive regional second-line authority, providing formal compliance sign-off on high-risk decisions and complex escalations elevated to the Governance and Risk Committee (GRC). - Provide strategic regulatory guidance and compliance advisory on Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs), novel customer use cases, and new regional license applications to enable safe, compliant market entry. - Lead the deployment and calibration of specialized financial crime compliance training curricula for regional business units, commercial teams, and in-country staff to foster a risk-aware operational culture. ## 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 - Bachelor’s degree in Law, Criminology, Public Policy, Finance, Business Administration, or a related analytical field. - CAMS certification or an equivalent globally recognized compliance credential (e.g., ICA International Diploma in AML). - 12 to 15+ years of experience in AML, Sanctions, and Financial Crime Compliance within financial services, fintech, payments, or banking. - At least 5+ years of senior leadership experience managing decentralized, multi-jurisdictional compliance teams or serving as a registered MLRO within Europe or the UK. - Proven track record of interacting directly with regional regulators (such as the FCA, DNB, Bank of Lithuania, or equivalent central banks) and successfully managing regulatory examinations. - Experience providing compliance advisory on product rollouts, licensing strategies, and customer use cases within a matrixed corporate environment. - A high-ownership, pragmatic approach, with excellent communication and stakeholder management skills to influence cross-functional executives and external partners. ## Preferred qualifications - Advanced degree such as a Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Laws (LLM), or a Master’s degree in Regulatory Compliance or Financial Crime. - Personal experience holding or clearing senior regulatory compliance officer status, such as the FCA's SMF17 or equivalent regional central bank approvals across multiple major EMEA jurisdictions. - Deep fintech and payments experience, including a strong operational understanding of Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), virtual accounts, multi-currency wallets, and cross-border payment mechanisms. - Experience partnering closely with Product, Risk, and Commercial teams to support high-velocity feature launches and complex corporate onboarding workflows. - Strong data literacy and comfort utilizing operational metrics, automated GRC systems, and dashboards to track compliance metrics and detect regional risk drift. 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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