Senior Employment Counsel, Americas

Airwallex • San Francisco, CA

7h • $160,000 - $270,000 • Hybrid

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 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.
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.
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.

Requirements

• 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

Nice To Haves

• 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

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.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree