Senior Employment Counsel, Americas

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 Legal & Licensing at Airwallex sits at the heart of the decisions that shape how Airwallex grows. This team backs the visionary builders transforming Airwallex into a generational financial company, sharing the journey of product development and sales alongside our business partners. You’ll help shape a global licensing footprint most fintechs wish they had, while making sure our brand and data architecture stay best-in-class for customers entering the agentic economy and ready for its regulatory demands. The hard part is helping the business move fast on product, revenue, and new-market expansion without compromising the regulatory discipline that protects the moat. What you’ll do You'll be the senior employment counsel for Airwallex in the Americas, and a hands-on partner to our People & Talent team on the issues that carry the most risk: terminations, workplace investigations, employee relations, and the policies that govern how 3,000+ people across 20+ markets work. You'll own US employment law directly and coordinate advice across other jurisdictions with our external counsel panel. Because Airwallex operates through licensed entities in most of its markets, you'll also work on questions that a generalist employment lawyer rarely sees: contractor and EOR classification across borders, remote work and mobility exposure, and conduct and remuneration matters in regulated entities. This role suits someone who wants to build the playbooks and templates a scaling employment function runs on, not just answer tickets. This role is based in San Francisco, New York, or Seattle. Responsibilities: - Advise the People & Talent team and business leaders on the full employee lifecycle, including hiring, contracts and variations, performance management, accommodations, leaves, wage and hour compliance, and terminations. - Lead workplace investigations and sensitive employee matters end-to-end, working with the cross-functional People and Legal working group. - Draft, refresh, and own employment-related policies and templates. - Manage employment disputes, agency charges, and litigation, instructing and controlling external counsel and associated legal spend. - Coordinate multi-jurisdiction employment advice across APAC, EMEA and the Americas, including contractor and employer-of-record arrangements, cross-border remote work and mobility risk. - Advise on compensation, benefits, and equity matters in a private company context. 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: - J.D. degree (or foreign equivalent) and active membership in at least one US state bar (California, Washington, or New York preferred) - 7+ years of employment law experience at a leading law firm and/or in-house legal department, with demonstrated employment counseling experience beyond litigation alone - Experience advising on and coordinating employment law advice across multiple jurisdictions - Experience leading workplace investigations and managing employment disputes, agency charges, or tribunal matters - The ability to translate complex legal and risk issues into clear, succinct, and actionable guidance for non-legal audiences - High motivation and the ability to operate independently and pivot quickly within a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment Preferred qualifications: - Experience at a fintech, payments company, or other highly regulated business - Experience with contractor classification, employer-of-record populations, or cross-border remote work and permanent establishment risk - A learner's mentality: you are consistently looking to take on new and diverse challenges and expand your knowledge and practice beyond your current areas of expertise - Comfort operating across time zones with a globally distributed team, including colleagues based in APAC and EMEA 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.