Employment Counsel, Americas

Airwallex; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking an Employment Counsel for the Americas to partner with People & Talent on high-risk employment matters. You’ll help build playbooks, policies, and processes to provide commercially practical guidance across the business.

Based in SF, NY, or Seattle, you will own US employment law, coordinate cross-border guidance, lead investigations, manage external counsel, and collaborate with Legal, Total Rewards, Data & Privacy, and regional partners to address hiring, contracts, and

Qualifications

• J.D. degree or foreign equivalent with active bar membership.

Responsibilities

• Own US employment law advice and coordinate across jurisdictions.
• Build employment playbooks, templates, policies, and manager guidance.
• Lead workplace investigations and manage external counsel.
• Partner with People & Talent, Total Rewards, Data & Privacy, and business leaders on employee lifecycle.
• Advise on hiring, contracts and variations, performance management, leaves, wage and hour compliance, and terminations.

Skills

Strong judgment

Commercial guidance

Independent work

Cross‑jurisdiction

Employment counsel

Non‑legal communication

Investigations

English

Education

J.D. or foreign equivalent & active bar

Tools

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 2,700 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 Employment Counsel for Airwallex in the Americas, you'll be a hands-on partner to People & Talent on the employment matters that carry the most risk. You'll help build the playbooks, policies, and processes a scaling employment function needs to give clear, commercially practical advice across the business.

• Own US employment law advice and coordinate guidance across other jurisdictions with Airwallex's external counsel panel, including contractor and EOR classification, cross-border remote work, mobility exposure, and conduct and remuneration matters in regulated entities.
• Build employment playbooks, templates, policies, and manager guidance that help the business handle employee matters consistently and pragmatically.
• Lead workplace investigations, employment disputes, agency charges, and litigation, including instructing and managing external counsel and associated legal spend.
• Partner with People & Talent, Total Rewards, Data & Privacy, Corporate Legal, regional People Partners, and business leaders on employee lifecycle, compensation, benefits, equity, entity, and contractor matters.
• Advise on hiring, contracts and variations, performance management, accommodations, leaves, wage and hour compliance, and terminations.

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

What we’re looking for

Essentials

• A J.D. degree or foreign equivalent and active membership in at least one US state bar; California, Washington, or New York preferred.
• 5+ years of employment law experience at a leading law firm and/or in-house legal department, with demonstrated employment counselling experience beyond litigation alone.
• Experience advising on and coordinating employment law matters across multiple jurisdictions.
• Experience leading workplace investigations and managing employment disputes, agency charges, or tribunal matters.
• Experience advising on the employee lifecycle, including hiring, contracts and variations, performance management, accommodations, leaves, wage and hour compliance, and terminations.
• The ability to translate complex legal and risk issues into clear, succinct, and actionable guidance for non-legal audiences.
• Strong judgment and the ability to give commercially practical advice under time pressure.
• The ability to operate independently and pivot quickly within a fast-moving, changing environment.
• Fluent English; additional languages are a bonus given Airwallex's global footprint.

Preferred

• Experience at a fintech, payments company, or other highly regulated business.
• Experience with contractor classification, employer-of-record populations, or cross-border remote work and permanent establishment risk.
• Experience with California Labor Code matters.
• Experience advising on immigration, restructuring, or RIF execution across multiple consultation regimes.
• Experience with works councils or statutory employee representation in support of EU entity coverage.
• Experience advising on compensation, benefits, and equity matters in a private-company context.

You’ll thrive here if

• You have experience at a fintech, payments company, or other highly regulated business.
• You’ve operated in a compliance-heavy environment and know how to move fast without cutting the corners that matter.
• You’re comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway.
• You say what you mean. You’re direct, but you lead with respect.
• You come to the table with a point of view, not just a problem.

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: $130K - $200K