Director, Regulatory Legal, EMEA in London

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 150,000 businesses worldwide with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 1,800 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$6.2 billion and backed by world‐leading investors, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future.

Attributes We Value

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 from first principles, balancing speed and rigor. 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.

About the team

The Legal, Risk & Compliance (LRC) team at Airwallex is a collaborative group of legal minds and risk management experts. We’re passionate about safeguarding Airwallex’s operations, fostering a culture of compliance and ethical conduct, and ensuring we navigate the global financial landscape with integrity. We provide expert guidance and support to all areas of the business, proactively identifying, mitigating, and managing legal and financial risks.

What you’ll do

As Director, Regulatory Legal responsible for the rapidly expanding EMEA region, you will be a valuable member of the global legal team and provide leadership for our growing EMEA business and navigating its increasingly complex regulatory landscapes. You will be supporting our regulatory strategy and advising on complex regulatory issues in the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East. As steward of our licenses, you will coordinate closely with our Regulatory Compliance, Risk and FCC teams to ensure we are compliant with our licensing and other regulatory requirements.

This dynamic role is ideal for someone who enjoys wearing multiple hats and solving complex issues for our clients, is detail oriented, willing to take on challenges and changes, obsessively curious and intellectually honest, thrives on taking actions and delivering impactful results, and aims to inspire and be inspired.

This role is based in London or Amsterdam.

Responsibilities:

• Provide actionable regulatory advice to commercial, product and compliance stakeholders on a broad range of regulatory matters throughout the EMEA region to drive product and commercial growth
• Find ways to mitigate legal and regulatory risks while progressing business objectives
• Support license acquisition and expansion efforts
• Advise on manuals, policies and procedures to ensure compliance with laws and regulations in the regions in which AWX operates while identifying opportunities to create efficiencies
• Ensure an effective working relationship with our regulators
• Manage the EMEA Regulatory Legal team

Who you are

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:

• Qualified lawyer with 12+ years of post‐qualification experience
• Strong regulatory experience gained in the fintech industry, reputable law firms or financial institutions
• Deep experience with the regulation of EMIs in the UK
• Sound knowledge of the financial services regulatory environment in EMEA
• Strong stakeholder management skills and ability to deal with a range of internal and external stakeholders
• Proactive, results‐driven, and take ownership of your work
• Ability to multi‐task and a team player with strong communication skills
• Strong drafting skills

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience using AI or deploying LegalTech/RegTech tools to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the legal function
• Experience working with stakeholders across the globe and on cross‐border payments issues
• Experience advising on MiFID and consumer regulatory matters
• Experience in EU or Middle East financial regulation
• Foreign language knowledge is a plus (French, Dutch and/or Arabic)

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 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.

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.