Director, Sanctions

Academic Key; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking a Director of Sanctions to lead a global sanctions programme from its London base. You will direct second-line governance, drive AI-assisted screening innovations, and partner with Product and Engineering to automate regulatory requirements across cross-border payments.

You will manage regulatory examinations, monitor evolving sanctions regimes, and report risk metrics to executives and the board. Strong leadership and communication are essential.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of sanctions compliance and financial crime risk management experience.
• Executive leadership with cross-regional teams in a second-line or global policy capacity.
• Deep expertise in global sanctions regimes and cross-border payments.
• Expert knowledge of OFAC, EU, UK OFSI, UN, MAS, HKMA, AUSTRAC and related restrictions.
• Experience providing independent oversight of screening operations and regulatory interactions.
• Track record evaluating and deploying modern sanctions tech, including AI/NLP tools and graph DBs.
• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering to automate regulatory requirements.
• Hands-on experience leading regulatory examinations and disclosures to regulators.
• Excellent communication across cultures and ability to defend risk positions.

Responsibilities

• Own and elevate Airwallex’s sanctions programme globally across jurisdictions.
• Provide second-line governance and escalation for sanctions decisions and risk.
• Lead, mentor and scale sanctions teams across regions.
• Collaborate with Data, Product, and Engineering to design defensible screening systems.
• Modernise screening with AI-assisted workflows, graph analysis, and real-time detection.
• Oversee regulatory examinations and disclosures with banking partners and regulators.
• Monitor geopolitical and sanctions developments and translate into platform needs.
• Report programme health and risk trends to executives and risk committees.

Skills

Sanctions compliance

Financial crime risk

Executive leadership

Cross-border payments

Multicurrency structures

Sanctions regimes knowledge

AI/NLP screening tools

Regulatory examinations

Stakeholder communication

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree

CGSS/CAMS or equivalent

Advanced degree (JD/ Master's)

Tools

AI/NLP screening tools

Graph databases

Job description

Director, Sanctions

Airwallex · UK - London

Abroad UK - London Full Time Link validated

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 Airwallex is scaling a global sanctions programme across multiple jurisdictions, payment rails, and regulatory expectations. You'll provide the second-line leadership, challenge, and transformation needed to keep the programme effective, defensible, and ready for what comes next. Own and continuously elevate Airwallex’s global sanctions strategy, policy framework, and second-line governance across all operating jurisdictions, including OFAC, the EU, UK OFSI, the UN, MAS, HKMA, AUSTRAC, and local regimes. Provide independent second-line oversight and challenge of first-line customer, payment, and counterparty screening operations, setting global standards for investigative quality, threshold tuning, and risk-based decision-making. Act as the global second-line escalation point for complex sanctions nexus determinations, potential hits, voluntary self-disclosures, asset freezing, and high-risk commercial deal approvals. Partner with Data, Product, and Engineering to co-design and validate fuzzy logic, name and transaction screening algorithms, geographic blocking mechanisms, and AI/ML-driven alert reduction systems, ensuring model defensibility and explainability. Lead the roadmap to modernise sanctions screening through AI-assisted workflows, graph analysis, automated detection, and real-time capabilities for cross-border payment rails. Lead regulatory examinations, supervisory inquiries, and complex due diligence reviews from global banking partners, keeping systems and decision trails audit-ready by design. Monitor geopolitical developments, sanctions evasion typologies, trade controls, and enforcement trends, translating changes into platform requirements ahead of regulatory deadlines. Report sanctions programme health, residual risk, key performance indicators, and emerging risk trends to executive leadership, risk committees, and the board. Lead, inspire, and scale a high-performing team of sanctions managers and subject matter experts across multiple regions. You'll work from our London office three days a week. What we're looking for Essentials 12+ years of dedicated experience in sanctions compliance and financial crime risk management. Executive leadership experience managing cross-regional teams in a second-line-of-defence or global policy capacity. Deep expertise in global cross-border payments, multi-currency account structures, foreign exchange, platform or embedded finance, or digital asset ecosystems. Expert knowledge of global sanctions regimes, including OFAC, the EU, UK OFSI, the UN, MAS, HKMA, and AUSTRAC, as well as trade restrictions, export controls, and sanctions evasion techniques. Experience providing independent oversight of customer, payment, and counterparty screening operations. A track record of evaluating, tuning, or deploying modern sanctions technology, including AI/NLP-assisted screening tools, graph databases, and automated alert disposition frameworks. Experience partnering with Product and Engineering teams to operationalise complex regulatory requirements in automated payment infrastructure. Hands‑on experience leading regulatory examinations, managing voluntary disclosures, and presenting screening architectures to regulators and institutional banking partners. Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence cross‑functional leaders, defend risk positions to regulators, and present complex sanctions topics clearly to executive leadership. A bachelor’s degree. Preferred Certified Sanctions Specialist (CGSS), CAMS, or equivalent professional designation. An advanced degree, such as a Juris Doctor, master’s degree, or degree in a technical or quantitative discipline. You'll thrive here if You're comfortable owning the roadmap yourself. You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway. You communicate clearly and directly across cultures, and you're thoughtful about how context shifts meaning across borders. You simplify complexity rather tha