Director, Sanctions

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 pri...

Airwallex is scaling a global sanctions programme across multiple jurisdictions, payment rails, and regulatory expectations. You'll provide the second-line leadership, challenge, and transformation needed to keep the programme effective, defensible, and ready for what comes next.

12+ years of dedicated experience in sanctions compliance and financial crime risk management.
Executive leadership experience managing cross-regional teams in a second-line-of-defence or global policy capacity.
Deep expertise in global cross-border payments, multi-currency account structures, foreign exchange, platform or embedded finance, or digital asset ecosystems.
Expert knowledge of global sanctions regimes, including OFAC, the EU, UK OFSI, the UN, MAS, HKMA, and AUSTRAC, as well as trade restrictions, export controls, and sanctions evasion techniques.
Experience providing independent oversight of customer, payment, and counterparty screening operations.
A track record of evaluating, tuning, or deploying modern sanctions technology, including AI/NLP-assisted screening tools, graph databases, and automated alert disposition frameworks.
Experience partnering with Product and Engineering teams to operationalise complex regulatory requirements in automated payment infrastructure.
Hands-on experience leading regulatory examinations, managing voluntary disclosures, and presenting screening architectures to regulators and institutional banking partners.
Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional leaders, defend risk positions to regulators, and present complex sanctions topics clearly to executive leadership.
A bachelor’s degree.
Certified Sanctions Specialist (CGSS), CAMS, or equivalent professional designation.
An advanced degree, such as a Juris Doctor, master’s degree, or degree in a technical or quantitative discipline.
You're comfortable owning the roadmap yourself.
You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway.
You communicate clearly and directly across cultures, and you're thoughtful about how context shifts meaning across borders.
You simplify complexity rather than hiding behind it.
You can advocate hard for a position, then fully support the team's direction once a call is made.
Regulatory & Compliance is where we build the trust, discipline, and operational resilience required to scale a generational financial platform.
As Airwallex grows across 30+ markets, this team turns regulatory complexity into strategic control. You'll lead compliance, enterprise risk, and regulatory engagement in a way that protects the business while letting it move with conviction. Our ambition goes beyond meeting expectations: we're building a risk posture that acts as a competitive moat, grounded in ownership, proactive regulatory partnerships, and frameworks that scale globally while respecting local nuance.
It's a team for strategic operators with sharp judgment, high standards, and the confidence to execute at pace in a high-stakes environment. You'll thrive here if you can balance rigor with progress and influence across functions.
If you want to architect the benchmark for trust and resilience in global finance, your work here will have a massive impact.
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.