Senior Manager, Strategy & Operations CEO Office

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

Job summary

Airwallex, a London-based global payments platform, seeks a Senior Manager, Global Expansion in the CEO Office to own end-to-end expansion across EMEA and the Middle East. You will define market-entry strategy, licensing paths, and product readiness while partnering with executive leadership to scale operations locally.

You will lead cross-functional execution, build scalable operating rhythms, and govern launches with rigorous risk assessment and governance in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years in top-tier strategy consulting or equivalent expansion roles.
• Proven end-to-end program ownership with executive updates.
• Experience with regulatory/licensing in financial services or payments.
• Demonstrated use of AI tools to support regulatory research or process automation.
• Strong stakeholder management and clear, concise communication.

Responsibilities

• Own market-entry strategy for EMEA and the Middle East, including opportunity sizing and market selection.
• Design licensing paths, entity structure, and commercial models for each market.
• Shape product roadmap by translating regulatory needs into scope and sequencing.
• Build operating systems for launches with AI-assisted research and automation.
• Govern go/no-go and launch-readiness with cross-functional sign-off and risk mitigation.
• Support priority CEO Office initiatives such as strategic reviews and cross-market structuring.

Skills

Strategy consulting

Regulatory knowledge

Fintech expansion

AI tooling usage

Stakeholder management

Tools

AI tooling

Job description

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 250,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.

Attributes We Value

We hire successful builders with founder‑like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role‑related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.

You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end‑to‑end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.

About the team

The CEO Office Strategy & Operations team partners directly with Airwallex's executive leadership on the company's most important priorities. We work across regions and functions to drive clarity, build scalable operating models, and ensure the right work gets done at the right time. The team combines rigorous problem‑solving with hands‑on execution, rolling up our sleeves to take complex, zero‑to‑one initiatives from idea to reality. It is a high‑visibility, fast‑paced environment where you will collaborate with leaders across Product, Engineering, Legal, Risk, Finance, and Operations to shape the next phase of Airwallex's global growth.

What you'll do

As Senior Manager, Global Expansion, CEO Office, you will own the end-to-end expansion of Airwallex into new markets across EMEA and the Middle East — from defining the market‑entry strategy through licensing, product readiness, operational launch and prepapration for commercial scale‑up. You will work directly with executive leadership to solve the complex regulatory, product and operating problems required to establish Airwallex as a local financial platform in each market.

This role is based in London.

Responsibilities:

• Own new country expansion strategy: Lead the strategy for where and how Airwallex expands next across EMEA and the Middle East (for example Western Europe, the Gulf, Nordics) — sizing the opportunity, choosing the markets, and defining what it takes to win in each one.

• Design the market entry model: Decide the licensing path, entity structure, and commercial model for each market, translating regulatory and licensing requirements into the operating model Airwallex needs on the ground.

• Shape the product roadmap: Work with Product and Engineering to turn regulatory and licensing requirements into concrete product scope and sequencing, so the roadmap is built around what's needed to launch and scale locally.

• Build the operating system for launches: "Vibe‑code" the tools, templates, and operating rhythms for market entry — using AI‑assisted research, drafting and automation (for example licence mapping, competitor analysis, Global Expansion dashboards, reporting) to systematise how Airwallex expands and remove manual work.

• Run governance: Own the go/no‑go and launch‑readiness process — cross‑functional sign‑off, risk assessment, and mitigation plans across product, operational, regulatory, and commercial dimensions — so no single function becomes the blocker to going live.

• Flex onto priority CEO Office initiatives beyond core market launches, such as strategic reviews, restructuring or migration projects, crisis response workstreams, or cross‑market structuring exercises where disciplined leadership and executive‑level communication are required.

Who you are

Minimum qualifications:

• 5–8 years of experience in top‑tier strategy consulting (MBB or equivalent), regulatory/financial services law, or strategy / expansion roles in fintech or payments, with meaningful exposure to market‑entry or licensing‑driven projects.
• Proven track record of owning complex, multi‑stakeholder programs end to end (not just contributing to workstreams), including planning, execution, and executive‑level updates.
• Strong operating discipline: confident structuring multi‑workstream programs, running governance cadences, managing dependencies across multiple functions, and driving timely decision‑making.
• Experience working with or around regulatory and licensing topics in financial services (for example payments, e‑money, banking, or card issuing), and comfort engaging with legal, risk, and compliance counterparts on requirements and constraints.
• Demonstrated use of AI tools in your day‑to‑day work (for example for regulatory research, licence mapping, competitive analysis, documentation, or workflow automation), with good judgment on verification and when to pull in human experts.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills, including the ability to simplify complex issues, influence senior leaders, and create clear, concise materials for steering forums.
• High ownership mindset, comfort with ambiguity, and willingness to get hands‑on in the details to move launches forward in a fast‑paced environment.

Preferred qualifications:

• Direct experience driving new market launches or licence applications in EMEA or the Middle East for a fintech, payments provider, or financial institution.
• Background that combines strategic problem‑solving and execution, for example time in both consulting and an in‑house operating role, or in both legal/regulatory and commercial or product‑adjacent roles.
• Familiarity with cross‑functional Global Expansion and product launch processes, including how Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Operations typically intersect for new‑country launches.
• Experience working in or closely with a CEO Office, strategy & operations, or similar central team that runs company‑level initiatives and special projects.
• Comfort building and iterating light‑weight AI tooling to standardise how we run launches and to automate status, risk tracking, and dependency management over time.

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.