Senior Governance Risk And Compliance Regional Specialist - InfoSec

Airwallex; Dubai; On-site; AED 420,000 - 660,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex Dubai is seeking a regional Security Compliance lead to connect UAE requirements with our global Information Security programme. You will drive audits, design and monitor controls, and collaborate with regulators, customers and partners across cloud environments.

The ideal candidate will have 7+ years in cybersecurity, deep PCI-DSS/ISO 27001/SOC 2 knowledge, and experience in fintech/payments. You will work with engineering, legal and business teams to scale compliance operations and

Qualifications

• 7+ years of cybersecurity experience with ability to work independently.
• Deep knowledge of PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2 and similar standards for security audits.
• Strong understanding of information security concepts and cloud security.
• Experience creating and maintaining security policies for regulatory requirements.
• Familiarity with security controls in complex cloud environments.
• Experience in financial services or payments sector.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and monitor security controls across regulatory compliance, data privacy, risk and security governance.
• Use AI and automation to streamline compliance work, including reporting, metrics, dashboards and evidence management.
• Build and maintain security documentation and artefacts for internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop regional expertise on security compliance while supporting the global programme.
• Collaborate with engineering, legal and business teams to apply practical security judgement across cloud environments.
• Evolve the compliance operating model as the company scales into new markets.

Skills

7+ years cybersecurity experience

PCI-DSS knowledge

ISO 27001 knowledge

SOC 2 knowledge

Regulatory liaison

Cloud security understanding

Audit support

Independent project execution

Strong communication

Tools

Security frameworks

Job description

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 to see it in full.

How you'll make impact

As the regional anchor for Airwallex’s security compliance function, you’ll connect requirements in the UAE with our wider global Information Security programme. You’ll work with government and regulatory bodies, customers, partners, vendors and internal teams, providing clear security information and helping Airwallex manage its external security relationships, while supporting our regional entities and making sure their needs are heard by the global team.

You’ll work with significant autonomy, drawing on your project management experience to move work forward without relying on prescribed methods. And you’ll treat security and compliance as disciplines to improve continuously, not boxes to tick.

• Design, implement and monitor security controls, policies and procedures across international regulatory compliance, data privacy, risk and security governance.
• Use AI and automation to streamline compliance work, including reporting, communications, metrics, dashboards and evidence management.
• Build and maintain security documentation and evidence artefacts that support internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop subject-matter expertise across regional security compliance requirements while contributing to the wider global Information Security programme.
• Apply practical security judgment to complex cloud environments and work independently across engineering, legal and business teams.
• Evolve our compliance operating model as we scale across new markets and regulations.

What we're looking for

Essentials

• 7+ years of cybersecurity experience, with a proven ability to work and execute independently.
• Deep knowledge of relevant compliance and control frameworks such as PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and similar standards, with a strong understanding of what makes a successful information security audit.
• Strong understanding of information security concepts, practices and solutions, with the confidence to work closely with engineering teams and discuss technical topics fluently.
• Experience creating and maintaining security policies, including adapting policies to meet complex regulatory requirements.
• Working understanding of complex cloud environments and their impact on security and compliance operations.
• Working understanding of financial services or payments.
• Experience managing, implementing and monitoring security controls, including preparing for and supporting successful information security audits.
• Ability to work independently, manage projects and execute security and compliance tasks with a high degree of autonomy.
• Strong communication skills and confidence acting as a regional contact for regulators, customers, partners and vendors..

Preferred

• Prior experience in the Fintech industry.
• Knowledge of security compliance specific to the finance industry or the UAE.
• Understanding of financial services and/or payments.
• Experience applying AI and automation to compliance, security operations, reporting, or communications.
• An industry-leading security degree or certification, such as a BS or MS in Cybersecurity, CISSP, CEH, or CISA.
• Experience using project management skills to deliver initiatives without being bound to traditional solutions or methodologies.

You’ll thrive here if

• You own the outcome and you don't wait for permission to fix what's broken.
• You have a passion for solving the complex challenges of high-growth startups/ scale ups, and for thinking creatively about ‘solved’ problems.
• You're comfortable with ambiguity. Give you a problem, not a prescription, and you'll run with it.
• You can execute independently and hold yourself to a high standard even when no one is watching. Quality and accountability aren't external expectations, they're internal ones.
• You've operated in a compliance-heavy environment and know how to move fast without cutting the corners that matter.
• You enjoy working closely with people across multiple countries and time zones as part of one connected, global team, including flexing your hours occasionally to make that connection work.

Learn more about your team

InfoSec at Airwallex runs one of the most modern security teams in the world, protecting hundreds of thousands of customers and hundreds of billions of dollars. Our scale, funding, and industry make us a real target, so we skip the standard playbook of off-the-shelf tools and tiered SOC analysts and build almost everything ourselves, often with AI ahead of the rest of the industry. You'll go back to first principles constantly, because the off-the-shelf answer is rarely right for us, and we can build better than what already exists. If you want to build security from the ground up, against a real adversary, with people who are actually good at this, this is the team for you.

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.