Senior Director EU & ME, MLRO

Job description

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 250,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, 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 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 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 Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) team at Airwallex is a strategically vital function operating under a clear Three Lines of Defence model. As the independent second line, FCC owns the global AML/CTF programme, sanctions framework, risk assessment methodology, and governance infrastructure across all global entities. As Airwallex scales into new markets and deepens its engagement with global regulatory bodies, we are building a world-class compliance organization capable of managing complex financial crime risks at scale. This is an environment where you will tackle high-impact challenges, shape global fintech risk strategies, and help establish foundations for long-term growth. What you'll do As the EU & ME Regional MLRO, you will lead and scale the regional compliance architecture across Europe and the Middle East, ensuring overseeing and directing absolute financial crime compliance and control operation while supporting regional business expansion. Leading a decentralized team of in-country MLROs, you will serve as the primary liaison for regional regulatory bodies, oversee localized compliance operations, and monitor shifting regulatory developments. You will act as the definitive second-line regional authority and escalation point, providing compliance sign-off on complex risk decisions, guiding new license applications, and advising on product and customer use cases. You will work closely with the global FCC leadership team, product executives, and regional business heads to ensure compliance is a strategic enabler of growth. This role is based in the EMEA region. Responsibilities - Lead, mentor, and scale the EMEA regional team of in-country MLROs, ensuring robust regulatory coverage, local compliance sovereignty, and consistent application of global standards across all active jurisdictions. - Act as the primary regulatory liaison for EMEA, managing day-to-day relationships, complex regulatory inquiries, and high-stakes examinations with regional central banks and financial authorities. - Oversee and execute local financial crime operations and reporting workflows in instances where regional regulatory mandates strictly require second-line actions to be performed in-country. - Monitor the regional regulatory landscape for shifting AML/CFT, sanctions, and financial crime developments, ensuring material updates are proactively analyzed and escalated to the Global Policy team for framework integration. - Serve as the definitive regional second-line authority, providing formal compliance sign-off on high-risk decisions and complex escalations elevated to the Governance and Risk Committee (GRC). - Provide strategic regulatory guidance and compliance advisory on Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs), novel customer use cases, and new regional license applications to enable safe, compliant market entry. - Lead the deployment and calibration of specialized financial crime compliance training curricula for regional business units, commercial teams, and in-country staff to foster a risk-aware operational culture. 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 - Bachelor’s degree in Law, Criminology, Public Policy, Finance, Business Administration, or a related analytical field. - CAMS certification or an equivalent globally recognized compliance credential (e.g., ICA International Diploma in AML). - 12 to 15+ years of experience in AML, Sanctions, and Financial Crime Compliance within financial services, fintech, payments, or banking. - At least 5+ years of senior leadership experience managing decentralized, multi-jurisdictional compliance teams or serving as a registered MLRO within Europe or the UK. - Proven track record of interacting directly with regional regulators (such as the FCA, DNB, Bank of Lithuania, or equivalent central banks) and successfully managing regulatory examinations. - Experience providing compliance advisory on product rollouts, licensing strategies, and customer use cases within a matrixed corporate environment. - A high-ownership, pragmatic approach, with excellent communication and stakeholder management skills to influence cross-functional executives and external partners. Preferred qualifications - Advanced degree such as a Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Laws (LLM), or a Master’s degree in Regulatory Compliance or Financial Crime. - Personal experience holding or clearing senior regulatory compliance officer status, such as the FCA's SMF17 or equivalent regional central bank approvals across multiple major EMEA jurisdictions. - Deep fintech and payments experience, including a strong operational understanding of Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), virtual accounts, multi-currency wallets, and cross-border payment mechanisms. - Experience partnering closely with Product, Risk, and Commercial teams to support high-velocity feature launches and complex corporate onboarding workflows. - Strong data literacy and comfort utilizing operational metrics, automated GRC systems, and dashboards to track compliance metrics and detect regional risk drift. 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 http://airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com http://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.