Enterprise Risk Manager

Airwallex; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 360,000 - 540,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex in the UAE seeks an Enterprise Risk Manager to shape and operationalise the regional risk program, aligning with the global framework while supporting growth in stored value and payments services. The role collaborates with Compliance, Legal, Product, and Regulators to manage risk and resilience.

The ideal candidate brings 5–7+ years in risk roles within fintech or financial services, with strong communication skills and a proactive, analytical mindset.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Law, STEM, or another quantitative field.
• 5 to 7+ years of experience in risk management, operational risk, enterprise risk, compliance, controls, or audit.
• Experience with defense frameworks, including risk appetite statements, risk taxonomies, governance processes, and escalation mechanisms.
• Familiarity with the UAE financial services regulatory environment, including Central Bank exposure to electronic money, Stored Value Facilities or Retail Payment Services.
• Strong communication skills with executives, Board or regulators.
• High-ownership, pragmatic approach in fast-paced environments with cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Adapt and operationalise Airwallex's enterprise risk architecture for the UAE including risk appetite governance standards and reporting.
• Partner with Regulatory Compliance Legal and UAE leadership to align risk governance with UAE Central Bank expectations.
• Translate risk data, incidents, and trends into clear reporting for UAE management and regulators.
• Serve as a trusted second-line advisor ensuring initiatives stay within risk appetite and regulatory expectations.
• Support risk assessment and approval for new products, services, markets, partnerships, systems changes in the UAE.
• Develop the UAE crisis management and resilience framework and scenario exercises.
• Contribute to enterprise-wide risk initiatives, dashboards, and data quality with UAE insights.
• Align local practices with the Group's enterprise risk framework across regulated entities.

Skills

Risk management

Governance

Data literacy

Automation & tooling

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Law, STEM

Job description

ABOUT AIRWALLEX

Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time intelligent economy. More than 676 000 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 https www airwallex com en-us operating-principles to see it in full.

About the team

The Global Risk team at Airwallex plays a critical role in enabling the company s growth by building a strong scalable and globally consistent approach to risk management. The team works across the business to define risk appetite develop frameworks and policies support strategic decision-making and provide oversight of key risks as Airwallex expands across products markets and regulatory environments. You ll be part of a highly collaborative group that partners closely with Product Engineering Operations Commercial Financial Crime Compliance Regulatory Compliance and Legal teams to help Airwallex grow responsibly and with confidence. This is a team where you ll tackle complex high-impact challenges shape how risk is managed at a global fintech and help build the foundations for long-term scale.

What you’ll do

As Enterprise Risk Manager - UAE you will help establish and evolve Airwallex s enterprise risk management capability in the UAE while contributing to the broader global and regional risk agenda. You Will help ensure that risk management supports responsible growth as Airwallex operationalises its UAE entity and expands its regulated payments offering in the region. Airwallex has secured in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for Stored Value Facilities and Category II Retail Payment Services licences. These approvals support the planned provision of services including multi-currency accounts global transfers payment acceptance and corporate cards in the UAE.

Responsibilities

• Adapt and operationalise Airwallex s global enterprise risk architecture for the UAE including risk appetite risk taxonomy governance standards risk limits escalation protocols reporting and decision rights
• Partner with Regulatory Compliance Legal and UAE leadership to ensure risk governance reflects applicable Central Bank of the UAE expectations and requirements relevant to Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services
• Translate risk data incidents issues trends and key risk indicators into clear decision-useful reporting for UAE management regional leadership risk committees and where appropriate the Board or regulators
• Act as a trusted independent second-line advisor providing constructive challenge where initiatives may exceed approved risk appetite regulatory expectations or the maturity of the control environment
• Support risk assessment and approval for new products payment services customer propositions markets partnerships systems changes and material operating-model changes in the UAE
• Continue to develop the UAE crisis management and resilience framework including escalation triggers governance executive response mechanisms business continuity planning and severe-but-plausible scenario exercises
• Contribute to enterprise-wide risk initiatives including improvements to risk reporting dashboards risk tools automation and data quality while sharing UAE insights with the global risk team
• Support consistent risk management standards across Airwallex s regulated entities and help ensure that local practices are aligned with the Group s enterprise risk framework
• Build strong relationships with local and global stakeholders fostering a pragmatic and effective risk culture across the UAE business

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.

Preferred qualifications

• Fintech and payments experience including exposure to cross-border payments merchant acquiring card scheme environments local payment methods or multi-entity regulated groups
• Experience managing risk approvals and governance in a high-velocity product and engineering environment where new features products markets or operating models are launched frequently
• Strong data literacy and comfort using dashboards metrics and technology-enabled tools to support risk oversight and reporting
• A clear bias toward automation AI and scalable tooling to improve issue management reporting and second line efficiency paired with the judgment to balance innovation business agility and control effectiveness

APPLICANT SAFETY POLICY

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 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.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Law, STEM, or another relevant quantitative field.
• 5 to 7+ years of experience in risk management, operational risk, enterprise risk, compliance, controls, or audit within financial services, fintech, payments, banking, or another highly regulated environment.
• Experience with defense frameworks, including risk appetite statements, risk taxonomies, governance processes, and escalation mechanisms.
• Familiarity with the UAE financial services regulatory environment, including practical exposure to the Central Bank of the UAE and requirements relevant to electronic money, Stored Value Facilities or Retail Payment Services.
• Demonstrated experience preparing risk papers and communicating effectively with executives, Board or committee audiences, regulators, or auditors, with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A high-ownership, pragmatic approach, with the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment with evolving priorities and significant cross-functional collaboration.