Director, Corporate Legal (M&A)

Airwallex; New York (NY); On-site; USD 250,000 - 340,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking a senior transactions counsel to own high-impact corporate transactions globally. You will lead private-company fundraising and financing, structure domestic and cross-border M&A, and advise on licensing, tax, and regulatory considerations, while coordinating with senior executives and cross-functional teams.

You will shape corporate governance, capital structure, intragroup reorganisations, and post‑close integration, ensuring the global entity and ownership structure

Qualifications

• U.S. legal qualification or foreign equivalent; active license to practice in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 10+ years in in-house legal or private practice advising on private-company financing and M&A, with end-to-end deal execution.
• Experience drafting/negotiating term sheets, purchase and merger agreements, shareholder and investor rights agreements, and related documents.
• Strong knowledge of U.S. corporate and securities law as applied to private companies, including fundraising and governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead private-company fundraising and financing transactions from term sheet to closing.
• Design and execute cross-border M&A and strategic transactions, including licensed fintech entities, with regulatory and licensing considerations.
• Shape secondary sales, liquidity programs, governance, and capital structure.
• Manage external counsel across jurisdictions, ensuring quality, speed, and cost efficiency.
• Develop scalable transaction processes, playbooks, templates, and utilize LegalTech/AI to increase deal capacity.

Skills

Negotiation

Drafting

Cross-border transactions

Project management

Stakeholder management

Education

J.D. from a U.S. law school

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.

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.

How you'll make impact

As the senior transactions counsel within Corporate Legal, you’ll own high-impact corporate transactions across Airwallex globally. You’ll lead private-company fundraising and financing transactions, including equity and equity-linked deals, from term‑sheet development and definitive agreements through diligence, negotiation, closing and post‑close actions. You’ll design and execute domestic and cross‑border M&A and strategic transactions, including acquisitions of licensed fintech entities and other strategic assets, while advising on structure, documentation, regulatory and licensing considerations, closing mechanics and post‑closing integration. You’ll also shape secondary sales, corporate governance, capital structure, intragroup reorganisations and corporate actions, ensuring Airwallex’s global entity and ownership structure supports its licensing, tax, regulatory and commercial objectives.

• Partner with the CEO’s Office, Corporate Development & Investor Relations, Finance, Tax, Regulatory Legal, Regulatory Compliance, FCC, Product Legal, Data & Privacy, Risk, People and other LRC teams to execute complex, cross‑border transactions.
• Structure secondary sales and private‑company liquidity programs for existing shareholders, employees and early investors, including tender offers, transfer restrictions, ROFR/ROFO mechanics and stakeholder approvals.
• Select, manage and direct external counsel across multiple jurisdictions, holding them to a high bar for quality, commerciality, speed and cost.
• Build scalable transaction processes, playbooks, templates and approval frameworks, thoughtfully using LegalTech and AI to increase speed, consistency and deal capacity.

You’ll work from our San Francisco or New York office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

What we’re looking for

Essentials

• U.S. legal qualification, or foreign equivalent, and an active license to practice in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 10+ years of experience in an in‑house legal department and/or private practice advising on private‑company financing and mergers and acquisitions, with a strong track record running transactions end to end.
• Significant experience drafting and negotiating core transaction documentation for equity financings, M&A, joint ventures and secondary sales, including term sheets, purchase and merger agreements, shareholder and investor rights agreements, and ancillary documents.
• Strong working knowledge of U.S. corporate and securities law as applied to private companies, particularly private‑company fundraising, secondary transactions and corporate governance.
• Demonstrated ability to work directly with senior executives, investors and cross‑functional stakeholders, providing clear, commercially grounded and risk‑balanced advice in fast‑moving environments.
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, analytical and project‑management skills, with the ability to manage multiple complex matters simultaneously and drive deals to closure under tight timelines.

Preferred

• Experience in high‑growth technology, fintech, payments or broader financial services, ideally with exposure to cross‑border structures and licensed entities.
• A mix of top‑tier law firm and in‑house experience, ideally in a late‑stage growth or pre‑IPO company.
• Experience designing or executing private‑company secondary programs, tender offers or other structured liquidity solutions.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with Legal, Risk & Compliance peers, including Regulatory Legal, Regulatory Compliance, FCC, Data & Privacy and Product Legal, on transactions that intersect with regulatory and product issues.
• Experience building or enhancing transaction‑related legal operations, including processes, playbooks, templates and tooling, to support scale in a global organisation.

You’ll thrive here if

• You're comfortable owning the roadmap yourself.
• You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway.
• You enjoy working closely with people across multiple countries and time zones as part of one connected, global team, including flexing your hours occasionally to make that connection work.
• You say what you mean. You're direct, but you lead with respect.
• You connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details.

Learn more about your team

Legal sits at the heart of the decisions that shape how Airwallex grows. This team backs the builders transforming us into a generational financial company, working alongside product, sales, and business partners every step of the way. You'll help shape a global licensing footprint most fintechs wish they had, while keeping our brand and data architecture best‑in‑class for customers entering the agentic economy and its regulatory demands. The hard part is helping the business move fast on product, revenue, and new‑market expansion without compromising the discipline that protects the moat.

It's a team for lawyers, strategists, and licensing specialists with commercial instincts, sharp judgment, and an obsession with customer‑first outcomes. If you want to guide executive decisions and help build the licensing, structure, and judgment behind what comes next, this is where legal has real leverage.

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: $250K - $340K