Senior Manager, Obligations Management

Airwallex; New York (NY); On-site; USD 157,327 - 247,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking an experienced Associate Director, Obligations Management to lead compliance governance globally. You will be responsible for the Global Obligations Register, overseeing compliance controls, and managing partnerships across regional teams.

The role requires over 10 years in corporate governance and regulatory compliance in a highly regulated environment. You will be vital in ensuring Airwallex operates successfully and responsibly, while also implementing advanced compliance solutions.

Qualifications

• 10 to 12+ years of experience in highly regulated financial services.
• 3 to 5+ years managing a compliance inventory or GRC program.
• Strong problem-solving skills and corporate drafting abilities.

Responsibilities

• Architect and maintain the Global Obligations Register.
• Collaborate with Risk team on compliance controls.
• Manage the global RFI knowledge base effectively.

Skills

Corporate governance

Regulatory compliance

Internal audit

Operational risk management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Law, Public Policy, Risk Management or related discipline

Tools

GRC software systems

Job description

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by a unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 200,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage business accounts, payments, spend management, treasury and embedded finance at a global scale. Proudly founded in Melbourne, Airwallex has a team of more than 2,200 bright and innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. We are valued at US$8 billion and are backed by world‑leading investors such as T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global and Lone Pine Capital. 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.

About the Team

The Regulatory & Compliance team helps Airwallex grow responsibly as a global financial platform. We work at the intersection of law, regulation, risk and business execution, partnering closely with teams across the company to navigate complexity, enable growth and protect the trust our customers, partners and regulators place in us. It’s a team for people who are thoughtful, practical and energized by solving hard problems in a fast‑moving, highly regulated environment.

What You’ll Do

As the Associate Director, Obligations Management, you will own the central governance infrastructure that identifies, catalogs and tracks regulatory and financial partner requirements across Airwallex’s footprint. Sitting as a global central team, you will lead the architecture and maintenance of the global obligations register, mapping complex statutory and clearing‑partner mandates directly to internal compliance controls. You will also oversee the institutional RFI knowledge base and the central global audit register, ensuring traceability of control performance and tracking issue lifecycles through to verified closure. You will partner extensively with Regional Regulatory Legal, Local Regulatory Compliance, Internal Audit and Second‑Line Risk teams to transform abstract legal mandates into a structured, data‑driven and audit‑ready compliance inventory. This role holds a global mandate and can be based in the US or EMEA.

Responsibilities

• Architect, scale and maintain the central Global Obligations Register, comprehensively cataloging all international regulatory rules, statutory laws, and Tier‑1 financial partner requirements alongside their respective compliance controls.
• Collaborate closely with the Risk team to ensure all mapped compliance controls and reporting obligations within the registry are structured effectively for independent monitoring, validation and testing.
• Manage and continuously evolve the centralized global RFI knowledge base, synthesizing data and insights from local Regulatory Compliance teams to curate uniform, legally defensible evidence portfolios for banking partners and regulatory bodies.
• Own the global central audit register, tracking internal audit findings, external examination gaps and material regulatory issues to drive accountability and verify robust root‑cause remediation before deadlines.
• Partner with Regional Regulatory Legal teams to ingest ongoing legal interpretations and horizon scanning data, ensuring the global obligations registry is dynamically updated to prevent compliance gaps or control drift.
• Direct and scale a high‑performing obligations management team, replacing manual trackers and spreadsheet dependencies with advanced, scalable GRC tooling and automated compliance dashboards.

Who You Are

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

• 10 to 12+ years of experience within corporate governance, regulatory compliance, internal audit or operational risk management inside a highly regulated financial services, fintech or banking environment.
• At least 3 to 5+ years of experience managing a compliance inventory, regulatory obligations framework or GRC program at a senior level within a multi‑jurisdictional environment.
• Proven track record of constructing complex compliance matrices, mapping internal controls to international laws, supervising audit registers and managing institutional RFI mechanisms.
• A high‑ownership, systematic approach to problem‑solving, with exceptional corporate drafting skills and the cross‑functional agility to align decentralized regional teams with central hub standards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Law, Public Policy, Risk Management, Business Administration or a related structured analytical discipline.
• Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Laws (LLM) or a Master’s degree in Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management or Business Administration.
• Professional designations such as Certified Anti‑Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) or equivalent GRC‑related credentials.
• Deep experience working within a high‑growth cross‑border payments company, top‑tier neobank or API‑driven digital platform handling high volumes of regulated transactions.
• Direct experience selecting, deploying or configuring institutional Governance, Risk, & Compliance (GRC) software systems to automate policy mapping and issue remediation workflows.

Equal Opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and consider anyone seeking employment at Airwallex based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We do not 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

$157,327 – $247,000