Senior Director, AML & Sanctions, Governance & Policy (Fintech)

Location: London, United Kingdom

Company

Airwallex is an AI-native financial operating system providing global payments infrastructure and financial products for businesses across multiple regulated markets.

What you will do

• Lead the global Financial Crime Compliance policy framework, ensuring consistent baseline standards with appropriate regional adaptations.
• Define the FCC governance and risk management framework, including risk appetite, risk acceptance, governance structures, and enterprise-wide risk assessments.
• Develop financial crime risk methodologies, thresholds, and data-scoring models in partnership with Product, Data Science, and Engineering.
• Translate compliance data, audit findings, and material risks into reporting for executive leadership and the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee.
• Oversee regulatory examination defense and disclosure governance, ensuring legally defensible evidence for regulators and external clearing partners.
• Build and lead a global second-line team of compliance attorneys, quantitative risk modelers, policy writers, and governance managers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Law, Criminology, Public Policy, Finance, Business Administration, International Relations, or a related analytical field.
• CAMS certification or an equivalent globally recognized compliance credential.
• 12–15+ years of experience in AML, sanctions, and financial crime compliance within financial services, fintech, payments, or banking.
• At least 5+ years leading a global or multi-jurisdictional compliance policy, governance, or risk methodology function at a senior level.
• Experience designing enterprise-wide risk assessment frameworks, maintaining centralized global policies, and preparing for high-stakes regulatory examinations and audits.
• Excellent written communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence executives and board audiences.

Nice to have

• Advanced degree such as a JD, LLM, or master’s degree in regulatory compliance or financial crime.
• Advanced designations such as CAMS-Audit, CGSS, or CAMS-RM.
• Deep fintech and payments experience, including cross-border payments, virtual accounts, multi-currency wallets, or multi-entity regulated groups.
• Experience embedding policy thresholds into automated transaction monitoring, screening, and onboarding workflows.
• Strong data literacy and experience with automated GRC systems, dashboards, and technology-enabled compliance tools.

Culture & Benefits

• Work within a global Financial Crime Compliance function operating under a Three Lines of Defense model.
• Collaborate with senior leaders across Compliance, Product, Data Science, Engineering, and the wider business.
• Help shape compliance strategy and infrastructure across global regulated entities and markets.
• Contribute to financial crime training and capability building across engineering, sales, and other teams.