Startups Community and Partnerships Manager

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 200,000 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 2,200 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe.

About the team...

Airwallex for Startups is built for venture-backed, globally minded founders, helping them extend runway, simplify operations, and unlock new markets faster through our financial platform, programme benefits, and community support. Our ambition is for Airwallex to become the financial backbone and go-to cross-border partner for the next generation of ambitious startups, while building strong relationships across the VC and startup ecosystem through partnerships, community, content, and events.

What you’ll do

• Own the UK startups community strategy across network, events, and partnerships, with clear goals around awareness, engagement, and pipeline.
• Build and manage relationships with early-stage programmes, including accelerators, incubators, university entrepreneurship programmes, angel networks, hackathons, and other startup ecosystem partners.
• Grow and evolve the Airwallex for Startups community so founders, operators, finance leaders, and partners stay engaged with our programme and network via newsletters, social channels, and other touchpoints.
• Identify, negotiate, and launch new partnership opportunities that create real value for portfolio companies, including perks, content, introductions, mentorship, office hours, and co-branded initiatives.
• Develop and execute the UK events calendar across founder, finance, and VC audiences, from intimate dinners and roundtables to larger-scale ecosystem activations and conferences.
• Lead partner activations that strengthen Airwallex’s presence in the founder ecosystem and position us as a trusted growth partner for startups.
• Work closely with internal stakeholders across Partnerships, Marketing, Sales, and GTM to ensure ecosystem activity supports awareness, partner trust, pipeline, and customer growth.
• Turn events and community activity into repeatable programmes with clear follow-up, engagement plans, and measurable commercial impact.
• Act as a visible and credible external representative for Airwallex within the London and wider UK startup ecosystem, including speaking, hosting, and attending relevant events.
• Spot emerging ecosystem trends, high-value communities, and strategic partnership opportunities early, and translate them into actionable plays for Airwallex.

What success looks like

• Airwallex builds a stronger reputation in the UK startup market through a consistent presence across the right founder and VC communities.
• Our startup programme network becomes more engaged, with deeper relationships across portfolio, partner, and community touchpoints.
• We create a repeatable rhythm of high-quality founder and VC activations that drive brand affinity, partner trust, and startup pipeline.
• Partners see Airwallex as a differentiated value-add for their portfolio companies.
• Founders in our network feel meaningfully supported through introductions, education, events, offers, and community access.

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

• Experience and/or strong existing relationships across the UK startup ecosystem, ideally spanning founders, early-stage VCs, accelerators, incubators, hackathons, and operator communities.
• A proven track record of building communities, programmes, or partnerships that drive genuine engagement and commercial value.
• Experience planning and executing events end to end, with strong judgement on audience, format, programming, and follow-up.
• The ability to operate strategically while staying hands-on in execution across partnerships, community, and events.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to represent Airwallex externally.
• Strong commercial instinct and the ability to connect ecosystem activity back to pipeline, partnerships, and business growth.
• High ownership, strong pace, and comfort working in a fast-moving environment with evolving priorities.
• A genuine interest in startups and a clear point of view on what founders and startup partners actually value.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience working directly with venture-backed startups or VC portfolio programmes.
• Experience building founder or operator communities from the ground up.
• Exposure to fintech, payments, spend management, global expansion, or financial operations.
• Experience working with cross-functional GTM and marketing teams in a scaling business.

Why this role matters

Airwallex for Startups is already building momentum through venture relationships, founder programming, events, mentorship, office hours, and partner activations in the UK startup market. This role will take that momentum to the next level by making Airwallex a genuine force in the founder ecosystem, deepening our partner network, and building a community that ambitious startups want to be part of.

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.