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

Airwallex; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex, the unified payments and financial platform, is seeking an experienced Risk Operations Leader for APAC. You will scale risk operations, own end-to-end performance, and partner with legal, risk, product, and engineering to implement control changes and advanced tooling including AI/LLMs.

You will drive automation, manage cross-location teams, and communicate strategy at board level while maintaining strong risk controls and a focus on operational excellence across a fast‑growing

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in payments/fintech/acquiring.
• 3+ years of people management experience.
• Deep expertise in merchant risk: credit and fraud risk.
• Proven track record managing senior ICs in multi-location teams.
• Ability to operate fast in ambiguity, set clear priorities, and drive outcomes.
• 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 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 KPIs (fraud ratio, chargeback ratio, etc) in MRM team to meet company OKR.
• Proactive stakeholder management including risk, compliance, commercial, product etc.
• Always challenge the status quo and strive for operational excellence.

Skills

Risk operations leadership

People management

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Ambiguity handling

Learning about payments trends

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

AI/LLMs in operations

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, 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.

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.

Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters

To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address.

Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.

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.