Senior Director, AML & Sanctions Governance & Policy — Airwallex, London, UK
Airwallex — the unified payments and financial platform for global businesses, powering 250,000+ companies including Brex, Navan, Qantas, and SHEIN — is hiring a Senior Director of AML & Sanctions Governance & Policy in London. Valued at US$11 billion and backed by Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, Visa, and Mastercard, Airwallex is building the global payments platform of the future.
The Role & Impact
Within Airwallex's Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) team — the independent second line under a clear Three Lines of Defense model — you'll shape and scale the global financial crime policy and risk-based program. You'll set risk appetite, design global risk assessment processes, and define governance frameworks, ensuring compliance is a strategic enabler of growth.
What You'll Own
- Lead the evolution of Airwallex's Global Core FCC Policy Framework, meeting the expectations of global regulators while supporting regional scalability
- Define the FCC governance model and risk management framework — risk appetite, risk acceptance, governance structure, and the enterprise risk assessment
- Define the methodology, thresholds, and data-scoring models used to identify and mitigate financial crime risks globally, partnering with Product, Data Science, and Engineering to embed automated compliance controls
- Translate complex compliance data and audit findings into clear, decision-useful reporting for executive leadership and the Board's Audit and Risk Committee
- Oversee regulatory examination defense and disclosure governance — building legally defensible evidence portfolios for global regulators
- Drive a unified, risk-aware compliance culture, from engineering to sales
- Build and lead a high-performing global second-line team of compliance attorneys, risk modelers, policy writers, and governance managers
Who You Are
A senior financial crime leader with deep AML/CTF and sanctions expertise in global fintech or financial services — able to balance regulatory rigor with growth, and comfortable operating at executive and Board level.
Why Airwallex
This role works directly with the Chief Regulatory and Compliance Officer and Global Head of FCC — a chance to architect financial crime governance for a fast-scaling, $11B global fintech with a true founder-led culture.
🚀 Ready to Apply?
Similar Roles