Senior Director, AML & Sanctions, Governance & Policy

Overview

In this role, you will shape and scale Airwallex’s global financial crime policy and risk program, aligning compliance with growth. You will define governance, risk appetite, and assessment processes to support global expansion and regulatory soundness. You’ll collaborate with senior leaders to convert complex trends into actionable actions and lead a high-performing, globally distributed team. This is a strategic, impact‑driven function that underpins secure, scalable fintech operations.

Responsibilities

• Evolve and maintain the Global Core FCC Policy Framework to meet regulator expectations while enabling growth
• Define and oversee the FCC governance model and risk management framework, including risk appetite and governance structures
• Design methodology, thresholds, and data-scoring for identifying financial crime risks and embed automated controls with Product, Data Science, and Engineering
• Translate audit findings into clear reports for executive leadership and Board committees, and manage risk escalation protocols
• Oversee regulatory examination defense and disclosure governance with evidence portfolios for regulators and partners
• Foster a unified, risk-aware compliance culture with global training across engineering to sales
• Support global FCC program priorities and continuous improvement initiatives with the Global Head of FCC and CRO/OC
• Build and lead a global second-line team of compliance attorneys, risk modelers, policy writers, and governance managers

Key requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Law, Criminology, Public Policy, Finance, Business Administration, International Relations, or related analytical field
• CAMS certification or equivalent (e.g., ICA International Diploma in AML)
• 12–15+ years in AML, Sanctions, and Financial Crime Compliance within financial services, fintech, payments, or banking
• At least 5+ years leading a global or multi-jurisdictional compliance policy, governance, or risk methodology function
• Proven experience designing enterprise-wide risk assessment frameworks and centralized global policies with regional addenda
• Experience preparing risk papers and leading defense during regulatory examinations and audits
• High ownership orientation with excellent written communication and stakeholder management skills
• Preferred: JD/LLM, CAMS-Audit, CGSS, or CAMS-RM; fintech payments experience; data-driven, automated monitoring and GRC capabilities

• ownership and pragmatism
• strong written communication
• stakeholder management
• Global risk assessment frameworks
• Policy governance and compliance program design
• Automated transaction monitoring thresholds and controls

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