Global Head of Risk Operations & AI Transformation

Airwallex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking a Senior Director/Head of Risk Operations to lead a global team responsible for onboarding, ongoing reviews and in-life risk management. The role requires setting procedures, ensuring high standards for integrity and documentation, and coordinating with Risk Product and Engineering to implement controls.

The position can be based in London or Singapore, with 24/7 coverage and scalable operating rhythms.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations within regulated financial services or fintech.
• Ability to scale risk operations across payments, issuing, and credit globally.
• Proven track record in fraud ops and ATO risk control.

Responsibilities

• Define procedures and deliver operational excellence for Risk Operations across onboarding, reviews and in-life behaviour.
• Build and lead a globally distributed team with full location/resourcing strategy.
• Drive data-driven performance management and continuous improvement of risk controls.

Skills

Senior leadership

Operations scaling

Fraud Ops & ATO risk

Analytical judgement

Cross-functional collaboration

Automation/AI transformation

Big data analytics (SQL/BI)

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

SQL

BI tooling

DBX

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.

About the team:

Risk Operations is a global 1LOD team responsible for the Acquiring, Issuing and Credit Risk domains. The team handles cases and investigations across product domains, working closely with 2LOD and Commercial teams to ensure that Airwallex operates within its risk appetite. The team is passionate about operational excellence and delivering an exceptional end-to-end customer experience.

What you’ll do:

As the Senior Director/Head of Risk Operations, you will lead a global team responsible for defining procedures and delivering operational excellence across new client onboarding, periodic review and in-life behaviour. You will ensure that Airwallex champions high standards for integrity, judgement and documentation in all aspects of risk operations.

Responsibilities:

• Own the vision, strategy and execution for Risk Operations

• Build, lead and develop high-performing a globally distributed team

• Own the location and resourcing strategy of the team, solving for 24/7 coverage, quality of customer experience and cost efficiency

• Create a repeatable & scalable operating rhythm, including clear OKRs

• Take a data-driven approach to performance management

• Strike the right balance between risk, customer experience and commercial impact, ensuring timely, high-quality decision making and communications

• Drive continuous improvement in the quality of procedures, playbooks and control frameworks, aligned to Airwallex financial crime and fraud policies defined by 2LOD and partnering closely with Risk Product and Engineering

• Ensure that Airwallex continues to improve the quality and consistency of documentation

• Lead AI transformation of the Risk Operations team

This role will be based in either London or Singapore.

Who are you:

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:

• Proven experience, including senior leadership in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations in a rapidly growing regulated financial-services or payments/fintech business

• Proven track record of scaling Risk Operations (at least 2 of Payments, Issuing and Credit) across multiple geographies, and of building globally consistent performance

• Background in Fraud Ops and ATO risk control

• Strong commercial and analytical judgement — comfortable framing decisions in unit economics, scalability and return on investment

• Track record of operating at the Operations–Product–Risk intersection and driving cross-functional outcomes without full reporting-line authority

• Demonstrated delivery of automation/AI-led transformation in an operations setting

• Evidence of big data/analytics (including SQL, DBX and BI tooling)

Preferred experience:

• Cross-border payments; multi-entity, multi-licence environments

• Experience across Payments, Issuing and Credit Risk

• Comfort with a highly technical, API-first product

• Exposure to IPO readiness / public-company control environments

• Top-tier consulting or operator-investor background (structured thinking under ambiguity)

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.