Senior Manager, Merchant Risk Operations, APAC [Relocation to Singapore]

Airwallex; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 108,000 - 167,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking an experienced risk operations leader to strengthen our global risk control strategy and manage an APAC merchant risk operations team. You will own end-to-end performance, collaborate with legal, risk, compliance, product, and engineering, and drive automation and AI-driven improvements while maintaining strong controls.

You will lead design and execution of monitoring and escalation workflows, and champion data-driven decision making in a fast-growing fintech environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in payments/fintech/acquiring with at least 3+ years people management experience
• Deep expertise in one or more Merchant Risk areas: credit and fraud risk, brand risk (AUP and compliance)
• Proven track record managing senior ICs in multi-location teams
• Ability to operate fast in ambiguity, set clear priorities, and drive outcomes in a fast-moving, high-growth environment
• 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

people management

data analytics

AI/ML/LLMs in operations

payments/fintech

stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience

Tools

rules engines

case management

AI tooling

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.

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 2,300 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.

As part of our Risk Operations team, you’ll be responsible for strengthening our global risk control strategy, managing a well-performed risk operation team and ensuring portfolio risk level aligned with the enterprise risk appetite. You are a self-starter and independent thinker with exceptional analytical and communication skills, capable of solving complex problems that will drive the evolution of our business.

What You Will Do

• 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

Who You Are

You are an experienced risk operations leader who is equally comfortable in the details of complex cases and in board‑level conversations about strategy and risk appetite. You know how to scale teams, influence cross‑functional stakeholders, and build systems that enable both growth and protection.

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

• 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

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong analytical and data skills – comfortable using dashboards and data tools to diagnose issues, design experiments, and measure impact
• Experience building or scaling risk operations in a global fintech or top‑tier payments company
• Hands‑on experience partnering with Product/Engineering to design risk tooling or automation, including use of AI/ML/LLMs in operations
• Mandarin language proficiency.

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.

Compensation Range: SGD 155K - SGD 240K