Engineering Director, Payments Platform

Airwallex • San Francisco, CA

13h • $237,000 - $407,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

As an Engineering Director, you will lead the teams that are responsible for building and operating critical components of the Payments Platform. This role combines people leadership, technical direction, and delivery ownership. This role can be based in Singapore, United Kingdom and San Francisco, United States.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience in people management, including managing Engineering Managers or Engineering Leads, with a track record of building and scaling high-performing teams.
• Strong product thinking and the ability to partner closely with Product Management to define roadmaps, prioritize delivery, and drive business outcomes.
• Deep technical fluency in software architecture and system design, with experience guiding architectural decisions for large-scale, complex distributed systems.
• Proven ability to operate in fast-paced, high-growth environments where incremental improvement, ownership, and speed of execution are valued.
• Experience in fintech, financial services, payments, or a similarly regulated industry where correctness and data integrity are critical.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the Payments Platform vision: Own the end-to-end strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Airwallex's Payments Platform — covering payment processing, routing, settlement, reconciliation, and partner integrations — ensuring it scales reliably across global markets.
• Lead and grow a world-class engineering organization: Manage, coach, and develop Engineering Managers and senior technical talent across multiple squads, building a culture of ownership, technical excellence, and continuous improvement while driving sustainable hiring and team growth.
• Drive technical architecture and platform excellence: Provide architectural direction for high-volume, mission-critical payment systems, setting high standards for reliability, observability, security, scalability, and developer productivity across the platform.
• Deliver with speed and operational rigor: Set clear OKRs, manage execution across multiple concurrent initiatives, and hold teams accountable for high-quality outcomes — balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform investments and operational health.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to align technology with business outcomes: Partner closely with Product, Commercial, Risk, Compliance, and regional engineering leaders to ensure platform capabilities directly support Airwallex's growth, customer experience, and regulatory requirements.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed