Associate Director, Performance Marketing, SEM

Airwallex•San Francisco, CA

52d•Onsite

About The Position

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 150,000 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 1,800 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$6.2 billion and backed by world-leading investors including Visa, Airtree, Blackbird, Sequoia, DST Global, Greenoaks, Salesforce Ventures, Lone Pine, and Square Peg, 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. The Marketing team at Airwallex drives brand awareness and customer engagement through innovative and strategic campaigns. We work to communicate the value of our financial solutions, attract new customers, and strengthen relationships with existing ones. By leveraging data-driven insights and creative strategies, we ensure Airwallex stands out in a competitive market. Our team is passionate about telling the Airwallex story and supporting the company's growth and success. We’re looking for a strategic, analytical, and deeply experienced SEM leader to own and scale our global paid search program. As the Associate Director, Performance Marketing (SEM), you’ll lead the strategy, investment, and execution of search engine marketing across Google and Microsoft Ads. You’ll manage a multi-million-dollar budget, define our SEM growth roadmap, and partner closely with product marketing, regional marketing, and analytics to drive measurable business outcomes — from lead generation to revenue contribution. This role is ideal for someone who can operate both strategically and tactically: designing frameworks for growth, mentoring regional and channel specialists, and ensuring our paid search programs deliver sustainable ROI across multiple regions and audiences. This role is based in San Francisco.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in SEM or performance marketing, with proven success driving measurable growth and ROI.
Strong expertise managing large-scale multi-region paid search programs (Google + Microsoft).
Experience optimizing for B2B SaaS or fintech pipelines with full-funnel visibility (from lead to closed-won).
Hands-on familiarity with Marketo, Looker, SQL, Salesforce, and offline conversion tracking workflows.
Demonstrated analytical strength — comfortable with bid modeling, forecasting, and performance attribution.
Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Economics, Data Analytics, or related field (MBA a plus).

Nice To Haves

Experience building global SEM frameworks that scale across markets.
Knowledge of multi-touch attribution (MTA), MMM, or incrementality testing.
Exposure to AI-driven ad copy generation or creative automation systems.
Familiarity with SEO/SEM alignment strategies to maximize paid–organic synergy.
Strong relationship with platform partners (Google, Microsoft) for co-marketing and innovation programs.
Multi-lingual and particularly Mandarin or Cantonese.

Responsibilities

Own the global SEM strategy, setting the vision for how paid search drives customer acquisition, lead generation, and pipeline growth across segments (SMB, mid-market, enterprise).
Develop and execute short- and long-term SEM growth plans, balancing efficiency (LTV:CAC) with scale.
Partner with Global Performance Marketing Strategy, Product Marketing, and Regional Leads to localize SEM campaigns for each market’s commercial priorities.
Manage annual and quarterly budget planning, pacing, and forecasting for paid search investments.
Serve as the SEM thought leader, identifying innovation opportunities in automation, AI bidding, audience layering, and creative testing.
Oversee campaign structure, keyword strategy, bidding models, and creative optimization across Google and Microsoft Ads.
Implement testing frameworks (ad copy, landing pages, audiences, match types) to continuously improve CTR, CVR, and pipeline conversion.
Partner with Analytics and Data teams to ensure end-to-end visibility into ROI, pipeline contribution, and attribution across campaigns.
Drive adoption of value-based bidding (VBB) and audience-first approaches (RLSA, Customer Match, CRM-based targeting).
Ensure strong campaign hygiene, naming conventions, and tracking governance (UTMs, conversion imports, offline events).
Collaborate with Product Marketing and Content to align messaging, creative, and offers with product value propositions.
Partner with Lifecycle and Growth Product teams to build cohesive acquisition-to-activation journeys.
Work with Finance and RevOps on pacing, forecasting, and ROI analysis to guide data-driven budget allocation.
Align with Sales and Regional Marketing to ensure SEM efforts support pipeline coverage and demand generation goals.
Manage and mentor SEM managers or specialists, fostering a culture of experimentation, precision, and data-driven decision-making.
Develop playbooks and best practices for global and regional SEM teams.
Partner with agency and platform reps to stay ahead of algorithm updates, betas, and emerging trends.
Drive operational excellence through consistent QA, documentation, and performance review cadences.