Senior / Staff Network Engineer, San Francisco

Airwallex•San Francisco, CA

3d•$160,000 - $260,000•Hybrid

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 2,200 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 Corporate IT drives our IT support, IT engineering and business engineering functions at Airwallex. IT Engineering is the core team that drives our technology experiences from communications and video conferencing to managing our computers, applications, identity and access management. Network Operations builds our corporate network, supports our international access for our Airwallex staff all over the globe, and ensures a reliable and stable experience for our remote and in-office needs. We design, build and run the systems and services our Airwallex team uses to build our product, serve our customers and run our business. We partner with every team in the business, from Finance to Engineering, People Operations and Support and solve problems and create solutions for the many challenges our teams face. What you’ll do As a Senior / Staff Network Engineer, you will define the global technical strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Airwallex’s enterprise and cloud network infrastructure. You will design and deploy highly secure, multi-region hybrid network patterns that bridge physical offices, data centers, and multi-cloud environments (AWS/Alibaba Cloud) at massive scale. Acting as a principal technical leader, you will champion infrastructure-as-code automation (Terraform, Ansible), optimize routing protocols for low-latency financial systems, and mentor engineers across our global infrastructure team. This role is based in Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne or San Francisco.

Requirements

Senior-level experience with designing, implementing and maintaining Juniper and Palo Alto Networks vendor solutions
Demonstrated experience in a multi/mixed networking vendor environment (Juniper, Palo Alto, Cisco, Aruba, etc.) in a global company
Experience with networking solutions for mainland China and international connectivity
Strong fundamental understanding of wifi technology and endpoint engineering – hardware knowledge a plus (Juniper Mist, Cisco Meraki, Aruba, etc.)
Expert understanding of command-line configuration of networking hardware and vendors (JunOS, IOS, etc.)

Nice To Haves

Strong knowledge of Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect, Prisma/Prisma Cloud and core networking fundamentals
Managed or lead a team of network engineers – ideally at a startup, from early days to a large corporate footprint, you’ve seen the growth happen and know the problems that come with it
Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field, 5+ years of relevant experience in a similar role.
Strong, demonstrated written and verbal English communication skills,
Understanding of common identity standards, including SAML, OAuth, SSO, etc.
Experience using and understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, etc.)
Understanding of RBAC, ABAC, PBAC, ACLs and common access management principles in security and corporate IT environments
Experience working in all SaaS-based systems and applications
Strong understanding of MDM systems (macOS, windows; kandji, JAMF, intune, etc.)
Ability to move fast and urgently, making correct decisions and assumptions – sometimes without all the information

Responsibilities

Build the foundations of our new corporate network, and help design the team structure and size for the future
Design and build corporate network infrastructure for new Airwallex offices as we expand globally, and upgrade our existing portfolio
Design, implement, and maintain highly available and secure corporate network infrastructure (LAN, WAN, Wireless, VPN) across multiple global offices and regions.
Configure on-prem gateway/router/networking hardware globally, including mixed vendors in some locations
Manage global connectivity over international leased lines and domestic internet connections
Lead the configuration and troubleshooting of complex network devices, including routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, and wireless access points.
Own CorpNet, and act as a first-responder or escalation point for complex network issues, running an incident through to completion and after-action reports.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., CorpSec, ProdSec, Engineering, Product, IT Engineering, Workplace, etc.) to integrate network solutions and support business initiatives.
Work with IT Engineering, IT Support on troubleshooting network issues on endpoints, including basic IT operations support, building a core networking understanding among the team
Develop and maintain comprehensive network documentation, including diagrams, configurations, and operational procedures.
Evaluate and recommend new networking technologies and solutions to stay ahead of our business growth
Mentor, develop and coach other network engineers and staff, sharing knowledge and fostering skill development within the team – manage underperformers and attract talent
Participate in a global on-call rotation, providing primary response for corp networking issues in a follow-the-sun model.
Flexible scheduling (as needed) to support the business and team initiatives -- i.e. participate in network upgrades after-hours or weekend implementation work to minimise business disruption.