Director, Product Legal (EmFi & Payments)
About The Position
Airwallex is seeking a Director, Product Legal to lead legal support for Embedded Finance, Lending, Issuing, and Payments for Platforms. The role leads a product-legal team of two direct reports while remaining closely involved in high-impact product and commercial matters. It serves as the U.S.-based point person for Embedded Finance, owns the Lending portfolio, provides secondary support for Issuing, and helps the Product Legal team expand its impact beyond one-to-one deal support. The Director structures novel Embedded Finance and Lending models for strategic enterprise customers and advises Product and Engineering from early ideation through product requirements review, regulatory structuring, terms drafting, and go-to-market readiness. The role provides practical, risk-weighted guidance on U.S. and international payments and financial services laws, negotiates agreements and terms with financial partners, and builds scalable legal resources for recurring deal patterns. It coordinates across legal, compliance, risk, product, commercial, licensing, engineering, and regional teams on launches, escalations, and regulatory matters, and supports prioritized product launches in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the UAE. The role also supports customer-facing legal discussions and complex commercial opportunities. The position is based in the San Francisco or New York office, with in-office work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Requirements
- JD or equivalent law degree.
- Active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
- 10+ years of legal experience in payments, fintech, financial services, or a closely related regulated industry, including substantial in-house experience.
- Deep expertise in U.S. payments and financial services regulation, including money transmission, AML/BSA, Reg E, UDAAP, card network rules, state licensing, and bank-partner or BaaS program requirements.
- Ability to make sound decisions amid evolving regulations, novel fact patterns, and incomplete information.
- Experience serving as an embedded legal partner to Product and Engineering teams from ideation through launch in a fast-moving fintech or financial services environment.
- Track record of structuring and negotiating complex agreements with banks, payment processors, card networks, or other financial partners.
- Strong drafting skills, including financial partnership agreements, platform terms and conditions, consumer terms, and related product documentation.
- Ability to translate complex technical and regulatory matters into clear, practical advice for business partners and senior stakeholders.
- Experience leading, mentoring, or developing lawyers or other legal professionals, while balancing people leadership with hands-on product counseling.
- Collaborative, commercially minded approach to partnering with Sales, Product, Financial Partnerships, Risk, Compliance, Engineering, and other cross-functional teams.
Nice To Haves
- Experience at a top-tier law firm combined with in-house experience at a fintech, payments company, or technology company offering regulated financial products.
- Experience with multi-jurisdictional product launches, including European payments regulation such as PSD2 and e-money frameworks.
- Experience with Visa or Mastercard rules, issuing programs, consumer financial products, regulatory exams, or bank-partner audits.
- Track record of building legal playbooks, scalable frameworks, or internal knowledge resources that reduce friction and accelerate product development.
- Experience supporting embedded finance, Payments for Platforms, Lending, or Issuing products.
- Comfort using legal technology or AI tools to improve legal workflows.
Responsibilities
- Lead the product-legal team supporting Embedded Finance, Lending, Issuing, and Payments for Platforms, managing two direct reports while handling high-impact matters.
- Structure novel Embedded Finance and Lending models for strategic enterprise customers in partnership with cross-functional teams and bank partners.
- Provide risk-weighted guidance on U.S. and international payments and financial services laws and requirements.
- Advise Product and Engineering from ideation through PRD review, regulatory structuring, terms drafting, and go-to-market readiness for products and markets.
- Draft, review, and negotiate financial partnership agreements and platform terms with banks, payment processors, card networks, and other financial partners; manage terms updates across jurisdictions.
- Build legal playbooks, approved use-case repositories, and reference materials to support recurring deal patterns.
- Coordinate with legal, compliance, risk, commercial, licensing, engineering, and regional product legal teams on launches, GRC escalations, and regulatory exam responses.
- Serve as the U.S.-based point person for Embedded Finance, own the Lending portfolio, provide secondary support for Issuing, and help scale Product Legal support.
- Support Product Legal Readiness for prioritized launches in markets including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the UAE.
- Support customer-facing legal-to-legal discussions and complex commercial opportunities.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
