Senior Director of Risk Assurance (Monitoring Framework & Reporting) 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 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.

The Global Risk team at Airwallex plays a critical role in enabling the company’s growth by building a strong, scalable, and globally consistent approach to risk management. The team works across the business to define risk appetite, develop frameworks and policies, support strategic decision-making, and provide oversight of key risks as Airwallex expands across products, markets, and regulatory environments.

What You’ll Do

• Build and lead Airwallex’s Global Risk Monitoring & Testing Programme, including the methodology, annual plan, testing universe, reporting standards, and evidence requirements for independent second line assurance across the business.
• Design a risk-based assurance framework that determines how, when, and why key controls are independently validated across financial risk, operational and technology risk, and non-financial crime regulatory obligations.
• Drive the evolution from point-in-time manual testing to continuous, data-enabled control validation using system logs, automated data extracts, dashboards, and internal risk tooling.
• Ensure assurance coverage keeps pace with business change, including new products, new markets, new entities, infrastructure changes, and new payment or banking partner arrangements.
• Oversee independent testing of complex financial risk controls, including areas such as FX, liquidity, capital, treasury, model governance, underwriting, and limit management.
• Direct deep-drive testing of operational and product controls across technology and business processes.
• Lead testing of non-FCC regulatory and partner-related obligations.
• Establish clear standards for finding articulation, severity calibration, root cause analysis, and evidence quality.
• Partner with Enterprise Risk and first line leaders across Product, Engineering, and Operations to elevate material control gaps.
• Produce thematic reporting and trend analysis for senior leadership.
• Build and maintain a regulator-ready and audit-ready repository of methodologies, testing records, workpapers, evidence, and closure rationale.
• Serve as a senior lead during regulatory examinations, partner bank reviews, and other external assurance exercises.
• Build and lead a high-performing global team of assurance professionals.

Who You Are

We’re looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Information Systems, Computer Science, or another relevant quantitative discipline.
• 12 to 15+ years of experience in Internal Audit, Compliance Monitoring, Risk Testing, Risk Assurance, or a related control function within fintech, payments, banking, remittance, or another highly regulated financial services environment.
• 5+ years of experience leading a global or multi-jurisdiction assurance, testing, monitoring, or control validation function at a senior level.
• Strong command of second or third line control testing methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience overseeing assurance activity across multiple risk domains.
• Experience translating testing outcomes into clear, decision-useful reporting.
• Direct experience acting as a senior interface for regulatory exams, external audits, Internal Audit reviews, or partner bank assurance exercises.
• Strong executive presence, sound judgment, and the ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively and independently.
• Comfort operating in a fast-paced environment with high standards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Enterprise Risk Management, Technology Risk, Business Administration, or another relevant field.
• Professional certifications such as CIA, CISA, CFA, FRM, CPA, or similar credentials.
• Direct experience designing or scaling an assurance framework in a cloud-native, API-driven, high-volume fintech.
• Strong data literacy, including experience using SQL, Python, BI tools, or automated workflows.
• Ability to work effectively with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Operations, Treasury, and Compliance teams.
• Experience operating across multiple regulatory jurisdictions.

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, or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address.

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.