Senior Associate Regulatory Compliance

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 2,300 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 to see it in full.

About the team

The Regulatory & Compliance Division (RCD) at Airwallex is a collaborative group of legal, compliance 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, compliance and financial risks.

The EMEA Regulatory Compliance Team forms part of the second line of defence (2LOD) at Airwallex whilst operating within the larger RCD function. We are a proactive and trusted business partner committed to enabling Airwallex’s growth and strategic goals by providing an advisory and oversight role. Our team culture is collaborative, impact-driven with a focus on continuous improvement. You’ll be part of a team that values transparency, empowerment, and high performance.

This role is a newly created role with a specific focus on our UK business. This role will be a key member of the EMEA Regulatory Compliance Team, based in our London office with a direct line to the Senior Manager, Regulatory Compliance, UK.

What you’ll do

As Senior Associate / Manager, Regulatory Compliance, UK, you will deliver on the regulatory engagement strategy for Airwallex in the UK. You will maintain our licensing responsibilities and coordinate with all internal and external parties as necessary to ensure compliance through the communication of regulatory requirements, cross-functional collaboration to productize solutions and offerings, implementation and execution of processes, accurate execution and filing of regulatory reports, renewal of registrations and licenses, end-to-end management of regulatory examinations, and interfacing with UK regulators (including the FCA) on ad-hoc inquiries. You will analyse new and existing products and provide guidance to ensure that our 2LOD controls are fit for purpose and comply with regulatory obligations, guide the first line business to enable the maturity of both customer-facing and internal back-office processes and product features.

Responsibilities:

• Support the Airwallex Group’s expansion by managing the regulatory compliance components of licence authorisation processes

• Act as a key stakeholder in relation to licence applications, business plan updates and information requests between Airwallex and our regulators

• Ensure that our regulatory compliance and regulatory reporting obligations are maintained for all Airwallex Group entities in the UK

• Support and / or manage on-site exams, inspections and audits (in collaboration with our RCD colleagues)

• Advise the business with respect to regulatory change initiatives with a particular focus on how to effectively manage compliance risk attached to new and evolving UK laws and FCA rules

• Develop policies, processes and provide advice in relation to regulatory risk obligations that exist within the 1st line business

• Manage regulatory compliance risk within the Airwallex Risk Management Framework and associated escalation process (inc. governance forums and board reporting)

• Advise the business in relation to conduct risk, Consumer Duty, complaints governance (including Financial Ombudsman Service escalations), and ethics matters relating to our financial services licences

• Deliver the Compliance Monitoring Program through assisting with targeted and thematic reviews on a wide range of topics to ensure appropriate organisational maturity

• Deliver the Airwallex Group’s Compliance Training for employees and conduct ad-hoc training to specific business areas as required

• Conduct ‘Proactive Special Ops’ projects to unlock business or operational issues to enable Airwallex to achieve its strategic goals more rapidly

Who you are

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

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with regulatory compliance experience in a financial institution, FinTech, legal / consulting firm, or combination of the above (minimum 4 years for Senior Associate; minimum 6 years for Manager)

• Familiarity with financial regulatory laws, rules, regulations and industry best practices in the UK (specifically FCA-regulated environments)

• Data proficiency - ability to work with data and leverage it for strategic decision-making

• Ability to operate strategically and think creatively to solve complex regulatory compliance challenges

• Superior communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex topics to a wide range of stakeholders including regulators, executive leadership, and front-line staff

• Experience with developing and/or maintaining a compliance program within a financial institution, preferably in respect of payments and e-money activity

• Exposure to licensing processes, regulatory reporting, regulatory expansion, and RegTech or technology-driven compliance solutions

• Understanding of financial products and related conduct risk, ethics, and controls

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience dealing with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and handling escalations to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

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 email address. Please apply only through 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.