Senior Manager, Obligations Management

Airwallex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking an Associate Director for Obligations Management to lead the governance infrastructure for regulatory compliance across the organization. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in corporate governance and regulatory compliance, with a deep understanding of operational risk management.

Key responsibilities include overseeing the Global Obligations Register, collaborating with internal teams for compliance monitoring, and managing audit findings. This role is crucial for maintaining compliance integrity and supporting the company's growth.

Qualifications

• 10-12+ years of experience in a regulated financial services or fintech environment.
• 3-5+ years managing a compliance inventory or GRC program.
• Experience with constructing compliance matrices and supervising audit registers.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the Global Obligations Register and compliance controls.
• Collaborate with Risk team to ensure effective compliance monitoring.
• Manage central global RFI knowledge base and audit register.

Skills

Corporate governance

Regulatory compliance

Internal audit

Operational risk management

Problem-solving

Corporate drafting

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Law, Public Policy, Risk Management, Business Administration or related discipline

Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Laws (LLM), or Master’s in Regulatory Compliance or Risk Management

Professional designations (CAMS, CIA, or GRC-related)

Job description

Associate Director, Obligations Management

Airwallex is a unified payments and financial platform that powers over 200,000 businesses worldwide, offering integrated solutions for business accounts, payments, spend management, treasury, and embedded finance at a global scale.

The Team

The Regulatory & Compliance team drives responsible growth for Airwallex, working at the intersection of law, regulation, risk, and business execution. Our team collaborates closely across the organization to navigate complexity, enable growth, and protect the trust of customers, partners, and regulators.

What You’ll Do

As the Associate Director, Obligations Management, you will own the central governance infrastructure that identifies, catalogs, and tracks regulatory and financial partner requirements across Airwallex’s footprint. You will lead the architecture and maintenance of the global obligations register, map complex statutory and clearing‑partner mandates to internal compliance controls, oversee the institutional RFI knowledge base and central global audit register, and partner extensively with Regional Regulatory Legal, Local Regulatory Compliance, Internal Audit, and Second‑Line Risk teams.

Responsibilities

• Architect, scale, and maintain the central Global Obligations Register, comprehensively cataloging all international regulatory rules, statutory laws, and Tier‑1 financial partner requirements alongside their respective compliance controls.
• Collaborate closely with the Risk team to ensure all mapped compliance controls and reporting obligations within the registry are structured effectively for independent monitoring, validation, and testing.
• Manage and continuously evolve the centralized global RFI knowledge base, synthesizing data and insights from local Regulatory Compliance teams to curate uniform, legally defensible evidence portfolios for banking partners and regulatory bodies.
• Own the global central audit register, tracking internal audit findings, external examination gaps, and material regulatory issues to drive accountability and verify robust root‑cause remediation before deadlines.
• Partner with Regional Regulatory Legal teams to ingest ongoing legal interpretations and horizon scanning data, ensuring the global obligations registry is dynamically updated to prevent compliance gaps or control drift.
• Direct and scale a high‑performing obligations management team, replacing manual trackers and spreadsheet dependencies with advanced, scalable GRC tooling and automated compliance dashboards.

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

• 10‑12+ years of experience within corporate governance, regulatory compliance, internal audit, or operational risk management inside a highly regulated financial services, fintech, or banking environment.
• At least 3‑5+ years of experience managing a compliance inventory, regulatory obligations framework, or GRC program at a senior level within a multi‑jurisdictional environment.
• Proven track record of constructing complex compliance matrices, mapping internal controls to international laws, supervising audit registers, and managing institutional RFI mechanisms.
• A high‑ownership, systematic approach to problem‑solving, with exceptional corporate drafting skills and cross‑functional agility to align decentralized regional teams with central hub standards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Law, Public Policy, Risk Management, Business Administration, or a related structured analytical discipline.
• Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Laws (LLM), or a Master’s degree in Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, or Business Administration.
• Professional designations such as Certified Anti‑Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), or equivalent GRC‑related credentials.
• Deep experience working within a high‑growth cross‑border payments company, top‑tier neobank, or API‑driven digital platform handling high volumes of regulated transactions.
• Direct experience selecting, deploying, or configuring institutional Governance, Risk, & Compliance (GRC) software systems to automate policy mapping and issue remediation workflows.

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.