Compliance Director & MLRO, Americas

Airwallex • San Francisco, CA

6d • $200,000 - $300,000 • Onsite

About The Position

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 2,000 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. 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 Compliance Director & MLRO, Americas, you will lead and scale the regional compliance architecture across the United States, Canada, and expanding Americas markets, ensuring absolute financial crime compliance while supporting regional business expansion. Leading a regional team of compliance specialists and localized MLROs, you will serve as the primary liaison for federal and state regulatory bodies, oversee regional compliance operations, and monitor shifting regulatory developments. You will act as the definitive second-line regional authority, providing compliance sign-off on complex risk decisions, guiding new license applications (including US state money transmitter licenses), 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 US.

Requirements

• 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.
• 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 multi-jurisdictional compliance teams or serving as a designated BSA/AML Officer or MLRO within the US or Canada.
• Proven track record of interacting directly with AMER regulators (such as FinCEN, NYDFS, state regulators, or FINTRAC) and successfully managing complex regulatory examinations and state licensing audits.
• Experience providing compliance advisory on product rollouts, US state money transmitter licensing strategies, and complex corporate customer use cases within a matrixed organization.
• A high-ownership, pragmatic approach, with excellent communication and stakeholder management skills to influence cross-functional executives and external partners.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree such as a Juris Doctor (JD) or a Master’s degree in Regulatory Compliance, Law, or Financial Crime.
• Advanced professional designations such as CAMS-Audit, CGSS (Certified Global Sanctions Specialist), or CAMS-RM (Risk Management).
• Deep fintech and payments experience, including a strong operational understanding of US money transmission, 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.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and scale the AMER regional compliance team, ensuring robust regulatory coverage, local compliance sovereignty, and consistent application of global standards across all active jurisdictions and states.
• Act as the primary regulatory liaison for the AMER region, managing day-to-day relationships, complex regulatory inquiries, and high-stakes examinations with federal and state authorities (including FinCEN, NYDFS, state banking departments, and FINTRAC).
• Oversee and execute local financial crime operations and reporting workflows in instances where regional regulatory mandates strictly require second-line actions to be performed within the region or specific state jurisdictions.
• Monitor the AMER regulatory landscape for shifting BSA/AML, USA PATRIOT Act, 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 or state 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 US/AMER staff to foster a risk-aware operational culture.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior