Senior Director, Enterprise Risk Management

Airwallex (UK) Limited

Job Overview

Location

US - San Francisco

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Lead the evolution of Airwallex’s enterprise risk architecture, including risk appetite, taxonomy, governance standards, escalation protocols, and enterprise-wide oversight, ensuring alignment with business strategy and global growth priorities.
• Translate complex risk data, issues, and trends into clear, decision-useful reporting for the C-suite, Board committees, and external stakeholders, acting as a trusted independent advisor who challenges initiatives exceeding approved risk appetite or outpacing control maturity.
• Oversee risk-informed change governance for new products, new markets, major systems changes, and structural changes, ensuring governance supports business velocity while maintaining effective control standards and clear accountability for remediation of material issues.
• Own and strengthen the enterprise crisis management framework, including escalation triggers, governance, and executive response mechanisms, while improving preparedness for severe but plausible events across operational, regulatory, technology, and business domains.
• Drive a unified, risk-aware culture across the organization by championing consistent adoption of enterprise risk standards, reinforcing first-line ownership, and promoting risk management as a shared responsibility and competitive advantage.
• Build and lead a high-performing global second-line team, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, Commercial, Compliance, Legal, Treasury, Finance, and regional leadership to support Airwallex’s next phase of scale with data-driven and technology-enabled risk oversight.
• Work closely with the Chief Regulatory and Compliance Officer and senior leaders across the business to turn complex risk signals into clear action and embed risk management as a strategic enabler of growth.
• Design, build, or scale second-line of defense frameworks, including risk appetite statements, risk taxonomies, governance processes, and escalation mechanisms in a complex, matrixed, multi-jurisdiction organization.
• Ensure familiarity with regulatory environments relevant to electronic money institutions and payments firms, including practical exposure to regulators such as the FCA, DNB, Bank of Lithuania, MAS, and FinCEN.
• Prepare risk papers and communicate effectively with senior executives, Board or committee audiences, regulators, or auditors, using excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Define crisis or incident governance frameworks and lead or support executive-level response to material operational, regulatory, or business events.
• Operate with a high-ownership, pragmatic approach in a fast-paced environment with evolving priorities and significant cross-functional collaboration.
• Leverage data literacy and comfort using dashboards, metrics, and technology-enabled tools to support risk oversight and reporting.
• Promote automation, AI, and scalable tooling to improve issue management, reporting, and second-line efficiency, balancing innovation, business agility, and control effectiveness.

🎯 Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Law, STEM, or another relevant quantitative field
• 10 to 15+ years of experience in risk management, operational risk, enterprise risk, compliance, controls, or audit within financial services, fintech, payments, banking, or another highly regulated environment
• At least 5+ years leading enterprise risk management, operational risk, or governance programmes in a complex, matrixed, multi-jurisdiction organisation
• Proven experience designing, building, or scaling second line of defense frameworks, including risk appetite statements, risk taxonomies, governance processes, and escalation mechanisms
• Strong familiarity with the regulatory environment relevant to electronic money institutions and payments firms, including practical exposure to regulators such as the FCA, DNB, Bank of Lithuania, MAS, and FinCEN
• Demonstrated experience preparing risk papers and communicating effectively with senior executives, Board or committee audiences, regulators, or auditors, with excellent written and verbal communication skills

🏖️ Benefits

• Opportunity to work with a global team of over 2,000 innovative professionals across 26 offices
• Exposure to world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital
• Collaborative environment with founder-like energy, real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership
• Use of AI to work smarter and solve problems faster in a high-velocity, tech-driven fintech environment

Skills & Technologies

Senior

Onsite

Degree Required

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Airwallex (UK) Limited

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About Airwallex (UK) Limited

Airwallex is a global financial technology company providing cross-border payment and banking infrastructure for businesses. It offers multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange, card issuing, expense management, and embedded finance APIs. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, the company serves enterprises and SMEs across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas, operating under licenses in multiple jurisdictions and processing billions in annualized transaction volume.

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