EMEA Regional MLRO & Financial Crime Lead

Airwallex

Amsterdam

Hybrid

EUR 150,000 - 190,000

Full time

14 days+

Application generator

Stand out for this role — generate a tailored resume and cover letter in about a minute.

Get past ATS filters

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking an EU & ME Regional MLRO to lead and scale the compliance architecture across Europe and the Middle East, ensuring robust financial crime controls and regulatory alignment while supporting regional growth. You’ll supervise in-country MLROs, interact with regulators, and guide license applications as the second-line authority.

Based in the EMEA region, this role partners with Global Policy, Product, Risk and Commercial teams to enable safe market entry, design training, and

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Law, Criminology, Public Policy, Finance, Business Administration, or a related analytical field.
CAMS certification or an equivalent globally recognized compliance credential (e.g., ICA International Diploma in AML).
12 to 15+ years of experience in AML, Sanctions, and Financial Crime Compliance within financial services, fintech, payments, or banking.
At least 5+ years of senior leadership experience managing decentralized, multi‑jurisdictional compliance teams or serving as a registered MLRO within Europe or the UK.
Proven track record of interacting directly with regional regulators (such as the FCA, DNB, Bank of Lithuania, or equivalent central banks) and successfully managing regulatory examinations.
Experience providing compliance advisory on product rollouts, licensing strategies, and customer use cases within a matrixed corporate environment.
A high‑ownership, pragmatic approach, with excellent communication and stakeholder management skills to influence cross‑functional executives and external partners.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and scale the EMEA regional team of in-country MLROs, ensuring robust regulatory coverage, local compliance sovereignty, and consistent application of global standards across all active jurisdictions.
Act as the primary regulatory liaison for EMEA, managing day‑to‑day relationships, complex regulatory inquiries, and high‑stakes examinations with regional central banks and financial authorities.
Oversee and execute local financial crime operations and reporting workflows in instances where regional regulatory mandates strictly require second‑line actions to be performed in-country.
Monitor the regional regulatory landscape for shifting AML/CFT, sanctions, and financial crime developments, ensuring material updates are proactively analyzed and escalated to the Global Policy team for framework integration.
Serve as the definitive regional second‑line authority, providing formal compliance sign‑off on high‑risk decisions and complex escalations elevated to the Governance and Risk Committee (GRC).
Provide strategic regulatory guidance and compliance advisory on Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs), novel customer use cases, and new regional license applications to enable safe, compliant market entry.
Lead the deployment and calibration of specialized financial crime compliance training curricula for regional business units, commercial teams, and in‑country staff to foster a risk‑aware operational culture.