(Senior) Manager, Regulatory Compliance, New Zealand

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 676,000 businesses, including McLaren Racing, Qantas, SHEIN, and TikTok, use us, directly or through our platform partners, to run their financial operations or build and monetize financial products of their own.

We started in Melbourne in 2015 to build the infrastructure global commerce runs on. We're the regulated backbone behind global payments: not by accident, but by design. A decade plus, 85+ licenses, and a financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

We're co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, with more than 2,300 people across 27 offices. We hire builders with founder-level energy, people who move fast with good judgment, dig in with real curiosity, and make calls from first principles rather than waiting to be told what to do. Read our operating principles to see it in full.

About the team

The Legal, Risk & Compliance (LRC) team is a collaborative group of legal minds and risk management experts. We're passionate about safeguarding Airwallex's operations, fostering a culture of compliance and ethical conduct, and ensuring we navigate the global financial landscape with integrity. We provide expert guidance and support to all areas of the business, proactively identifying, mitigating, and managing legal, compliance and financial risks.

The Global Regulatory Compliance Team forms part of the second line of defence (2LOD) at Airwallex whilst operating within the larger LRC function. We are a proactive and trusted business partner committed to enabling Airwallex’s growth and strategic goals by providing an advisory and oversight role. Our team culture is collaborative, impact-driven with a focus on continuous improvement. You’ll be part of a team that values transparency, empowerment and high performance.

This role is a newly created role with a specific focus on our New Zealand business. You will be a key member of the Global Regulatory Compliance Team, based in Auckland with a direct reporting line to the Director, Regulatory Compliance, ANZ (based in Sydney).

What you'll do

As (Senior) Manager, Regulatory Compliance, New Zealand you will deliver on the regulatory engagement strategy and maintain our licensing responsibilities for our regulated financial services entity in New Zealand. You will coordinate with all internal and external parties to ensure compliance through the communication of regulatory requirements, cross-functional collaboration to productize solutions and offerings, implementation and execution of processes and interfacing with our regulators. You will also help to continue to build our global regulatory compliance program based on the 3 lines of defence principle. You will analyse new and existing products and provide guidance to ensure that our 2LOD second line of defence controls are fit for purpose and comply with regulatory obligations and guide the first line business to enable the maturity of both customer-facing and internal back-office processes and product features.

Responsibilities:

• Direct point of contact with the FMA in New Zealand

• Deliver the regulatory engagement strategy in the region

• Support the Airwallex Group’s expansion by managing the regulatory compliance components of any licence authorisation processes

• Act as a key stakeholder in relation to licence applications, business plan updates and information requests between Airwallex and our regulators

• Ensure that our regulatory compliance and any risk / breach reporting obligations are maintained for all Airwallex Group entities in the region

• Support and / or manage on-site exams and inspections (in collaboration with other LRC colleagues)

• Advise the business with respect to regulatory change initiatives with a particular focus on how to effectively manage compliance risk attached to new laws and regulations in the jurisdictions we operate

• Develop policies, processes and provide advice in relation to regulatory risk obligations that exist within the 1st line business

• Manage regulatory compliance risk within the Airwallex Enterprise Risk Management Framework and associated escalation process (inc. the Group Risk Committee)

• Advise the business in relation to conduct risk and ethics matters (where appropriate) relating to our financial services licences

• Deliver the Compliance Monitoring Program; Conduct targeted and thematic reviews on a wide range of topics to ensure appropriate organisational maturity

• Deliver the Airwallex Group’s Compliance Training for employees and conduct ad-hoc training to specific business areas as required

• Conduct ‘Proactive Special Ops’ projects to unlock business or operational issues to enable Airwallex to achieve its strategic goals more rapidly

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor’s / Master’s degree in law from a recognised university or analogous Compliance qualifications / experience;

• At least 10 years experience in regulatory compliance in a regulated financial institution, FinTech, legal / consulting firm, or combination of the above;

• Familiarity with financial regulatory laws, rules, regulations and industry best practices across the ANZ region with a specific focus on New Zealand;

• Experience in dealing with Regulators including the FMA, DIA and other financial services regulators across the region;

• Data proficiency - ability to work with data and leverage it for strategic decision-making;

• Outstanding time management, presentation, and relationship-building skills, coupled with the ability to understand the larger picture while operating in a focused manner;

• Ability to operate strategically and think creatively to solve complex regulatory compliance challenges;

• Experience with developing and/or maintaining a compliance program within a financial institution, preferably in respect of payments activity;

• Ability to work in a fast-paced start-up environment by multitasking effortlessly and managing competing priorities under demanding deadlines;

• Exposure to licensing processes, regulatory expansion, and RegTech or technology-driven compliance solutions; and

• Deep understanding of financial products/services and related conduct risk, ethics, and controls.

Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters

To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com or our official LinkedIn page.

Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary.

Equal opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. 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.