Head of Risk Operations

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...

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 ...

You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If tha...

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.
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
This role will be based in either London or Singapore.
We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

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)
To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com or our official LinkedIn page.
Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.