Head of Onboarding & FinCrime Operations

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 https://www.airwallex.com/en-us/operating-principles to see it in full.   About the team: Onboarding and FinCrime Operations is a global team responsible for KYC Operations, Name Screening and Transaction Monitoring at Airwallex globally. This is a first-line-of-defence team and the largest part of the Operations division. You will partner closely with 2LOD Financial Crime Compliance (including the MLRO teams), Risk Product and Commercial leaders across our key markets. The team is passionate about operational excellence and delivering an exceptional end-to-end customer experience. The team thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment and is committed to continuous learning, innovation and growth. What you’ll do: As the Head of Onboarding and FinCrime Operations, you will lead a global team responsible for defining procedures and delivering operational excellence in new client onboarding and periodic review. You will ensure that Airwallex champions high standards for integrity, judgement and documentation in all aspects of financial crime operations. Responsibilities: - Own the vision, strategy and execution for Onboarding and FinCrime Operations - Build, lead and develop high-performing a globally distributed team, managing capacity to reflect business growth - 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 Onboarding and FinCrime Operations teams This role will be based in either London or Singapore. Who are you: We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory. Minimum qualifications: - Proven experience, including senior leadership in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations in a regulated financial-services or payments/fintech business - Deep knowledge of AML/CTF, sanctions, KYC, transaction monitoring and investigations processes and controls and how they map into first-line operations - Proven track record of scaling FinCrime and/or Onboarding Operations across multiple product lines and geographies, and of building globally consistent performance - Demonstrated delivery of automation/AI-led transformation in an operations setting (or clear strategic + technical fluency to lead it) - 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 - Experience managing outsourced / BPO / offshore capacity at scale Preferred experience: - Cross-border payments; multi-entity, multi-licence environments - Comfort with a highly technical, API-first product - Demonstrable evidence of driving tooling and rule evolution with Risk Product & Data teams - Experience of AI transformation in Onboarding and FinCrime Operations - Top-tier consulting or operator-investor background (structured thinking under ambiguity) - Relevant professional certification (e.g., CAMS, ICA, ACAMs etc.) would be a strong plus APPLICANT SAFETY POLICY: FRAUD AND THIRD-PARTY RECRUITERS 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 http://airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com http://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. 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.