Head of Payments Economics & Scheme Optimization

Airwallex; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

"Health insurance"

Job summary

Airwallex in London is seeking a Payments Costs Lead to own cost integrity across card networks, interchange and pricing. You will translate fee schedules into system logic and drive commercial decisions.

You will build fee tables, run analytics across markets, and partner with Product, Engineering and Finance to optimise cost and margin while maintaining governance and controls. This role supports hybrid work with three days per week in the London office.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in payments, acquiring, issuing, card networks, payment infrastructure or related roles.
• Deep knowledge of card payment economics, particularly Visa and Mastercard interchange, scheme fees, transaction qualification and network rules.
• Strong ability to operationalise complex payment rules, translating fee schedules and network requirements into system logic, configurations and controls.
• Experience with payment cost systems and controls, including interchange tables, scheme fee logic, BIN-based rules, transaction attributes or similar payment configurations.
• Strong analytical and quantitative capabilities, including experience working with transaction-level data, economic modelling and reconciliation of expected versus actual payment costs.
• Strong commercial judgement, with the ability to connect detailed payment mechanics to pricing, product decisions and margin optimisation.
• Exceptional attention to detail and ownership, with the discipline required to manage complex rules where small errors can create meaningful financial impact at scale.
• Strong cross-functional execution, with the ability to work effectively across Product, Engineering, Finance, Data, Operations and external payment partners.

Responsibilities

• Own payment-cost integrity across scheme fees, interchange and network rules, translating changes into clear financial, product and operational requirements.
• Build accurate fee tables, eligibility criteria and transaction-level logic with Product and Engineering, ensuring cost calculation, allocation and customer billing reflect current network rules.
• Develop models and analytics across markets, products, payment methods and transaction types to identify margin drivers, anomalies, leakage and opportunities to improve payment economics.
• Drive structural cost and margin optimisation through transaction qualification, BIN routing, cost configuration and other levers, while shaping pricing, product design, market launches and commercial strategy.
• Strengthen governance, testing, reconciliation and automated controls, comparing expected costs with actual network charges and driving root-cause resolution.

Skills

Payments expertise

Card networks

Interchange fees

Network rules

Financial modelling

Data analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Pricing strategy

Attention to detail

Operationalize rules

Job description

Airwallex in London is seeking a Payments Costs Lead to own cost integrity across card networks, interchange and pricing. You will translate fee schedules into system logic and drive commercial decisions.

You will build fee tables, run analytics across markets, and partner with Product, Engineering and Finance to optimise cost and margin while maintaining governance and controls. This role supports hybrid work with three days per week in the London office.