Senior Director of Operational Risk (Framework & Governance)

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 – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – 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. Valued at US$8 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us. 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 https://www.airwallex.com/us/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. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next. About the team 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. You’ll be part of a highly collaborative group that partners closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, Commercial, Financial Crime Compliance, Regulatory Compliance, and Legal teams to help Airwallex grow responsibly and with confidence. This is a team where you’ll tackle complex, high-impact challenges, shape how risk is managed at a global fintech, and help build the foundations for long-term scale. What you'll do Airwallex is building a standalone global second line of defense, and this role will be central to that evolution. As Global Lead of Operational Risk, you will build and lead the global framework that helps Airwallex identify, measure, escalate, and reduce operational risk across a fast-growing, high-transaction fintech platform. This is a senior leadership role for someone who can challenge deeply, think systemically, and partner credibly with executives across Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance, and regional teams to make sure the business can scale without compromising resilience, regulatory standing, or customer trust. This role is based in the US or EMEA. Responsibilities: - Architect, own, and continuously evolve Airwallex’s global Operational Risk Framework, including the standards, governance, and escalation protocols for how operational risks are identified, assessed, monitored, and remediated across the company. - Establish and lead core operational risk programs across event and loss management, risk assessments, recovery and resolution, fraud risk governance, and third-party risk management, translating major incidents and control failures into actionable insight and durable remediation. - Serve as the senior 2LoD authority for operational risk boundary breaches, including tracking systemic exposures, driving root cause analysis, escalating material iss