APAC Merchant Risk Operations Lead

Airwallex; Hong Kong; On-site; HKD 923,000 - 1,477,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex in Hong Kong is seeking an experienced risk operations leader to scale APAC merchant risk operations for Payments. You will partner with product, engineering and legal to implement new risk policies, build automated workflows, and monitor performance across the region.

The ideal candidate brings 8+ years in payments/fintech with 3+ years in people leadership, a track record managing multi-location teams, and a hands-on approach to analytics.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in payments / fintech / acquiring with at least 3+ years people management experiences
• Deep expertise in one or more of Merchant Risk: credit and fraud risk ( reserves and exposure management)
• Brand risk (AUP and compliance management)
• Proven track record managing senior ICs in multi-location teams
• Demonstrated ability to operate fast in ambiguity, set clear priorities, and drive outcomes in a fast-moving, high-growth environment
• A strong desire to learn about new payment trends and technologies.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience

Responsibilities

• Lead APAC Merchant Risk Operations team for Payments
• Own end-to-end operational performance for APAC merchant risk operations, including SLAs, quality, loss metrics, and customer impact
• Oversee design and execution of merchant monitoring, investigation and escalation workflows across APAC region
• Partner with global legal, risk and compliance team to implement new policies and control changes efficiently into operations
• Work with Product and Engineering to evolve risk tooling (rules engines, case management, AI/LLM-based workflows, analytics surfaces) for higher accuracy and efficiency
• Champion automation and AI to reduce manual work, speed up decisions, and improve reviewer effectiveness while maintaining strong control standards
• Drive the key performance metrics (fraud ratio, chargeback ratio, etc) in MRM team to meet the company OKR
• Proactive stakeholder management including risk, compliance, commercial, product etc.
• Always challenge the status quo and continuously strive for operational excellence

Skills

Risk operations leadership

People management

Board-level communication

Ambiguity navigation

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Tools

AI/ML/LLMs in operations

Dashboards and data tools

Job description

Airwallex in Hong Kong is seeking an experienced risk operations leader to scale APAC merchant risk operations for Payments. You will partner with product, engineering and legal to implement new risk policies, build automated workflows, and monitor performance across the region.

The ideal candidate brings 8+ years in payments/fintech with 3+ years in people leadership, a track record managing multi-location teams, and a hands-on approach to analytics.