Head of Risk Operations
Role Summary
Join Airwallex as the Head of Risk Operations, leading a global team for operational excellence in risk management.
About the Organisation
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, Rippling, 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.
Risk Operations is a global 1LOD team responsible for the Acquiring, Issuing and Credit Risk domains. The team handles cases and investigations across product domains, working closely with 2LOD and Commercial teams to ensure that Airwallex operates within its risk appetite. The team is passionate about operational excellence and delivering an exceptional end-to-end customer experience.
Key Responsibilities
As the Senior Director/Head of Risk Operations, you will lead a global team responsible for defining procedures and delivering operational excellence across new client onboarding, periodic review and in-life behaviour. You will ensure that Airwallex champions high standards for integrity, judgement and documentation in all aspects of risk operations.
This role will be based in either London or Singapore.
- Own the vision, strategy and execution for Risk Operations
- Build, lead and develop high-performing a globally distributed team
- Own the location and resourcing strategy of the team, solving for 24/7 coverage, quality of customer experience and cost efficiency
- Create a repeatable & scalable operating rhythm, including clear OKRs
- Take a data-driven approach to performance management
- Strike the right balance between risk, customer experience and commercial impact, ensuring timely, high-quality decision making and communications
- Drive continuous improvement in the quality of procedures, playbooks and control frameworks, aligned to Airwallex financial crime and fraud policies defined by 2LOD and partnering closely with Risk Product and Engineering
- Ensure that Airwallex continues to improve the quality and consistency of documentation
- Lead AI transformation of the Risk Operations team
Minimum Requirements
- Proven experience, including senior leadership in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations in a rapidly growing regulated financial-services or payments/fintech business
- Proven track record of scaling Risk Operations (at least 2 of Payments, Issuing and Credit) across multiple geographies, and of building globally consistent performance
- Background in Fraud Ops and ATO risk control
- Strong commercial and analytical judgement — comfortable framing decisions in unit economics, scalability and return on investment
- Track record of operating at the Operations–Product–Risk intersection and driving cross-functional outcomes without full reporting-line authority
- Demonstrated delivery of automation/AI-led transformation in an operations setting
- Evidence of big data/analytics (including SQL, DBX and BI tooling)
- Cross-border payments; multi-entity, multi-licence environments
- Experience across Payments, Issuing and Credit Risk
- Comfort with a highly technical, API-first product
- Exposure to IPO readiness / public-company control environments
- Top-tier consulting or operator-investor background (structured thinking under ambiguity)
Eligibility Criteria
No specific eligibility criteria mentioned; details on visa sponsorship are unclear.
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