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

Location: New York or London

Base salary: $220,000–$300,000 per year, plus potential equity and bonus.

Company

Airwallex provides an AI-native financial operating system and regulated infrastructure for global payments, financial operations, and financial products.

What you will do

• Lead the global Financial Crime Compliance policy framework and establish core standards with regional adaptations.
• Define the FCC governance and risk management framework, including risk appetite, risk acceptance, governance structures, and enterprise risk assessments.
• Develop global financial crime risk methodologies, thresholds, and data-scoring models with Product, Data Science, and Engineering teams.
• Oversee automated compliance controls for transaction monitoring, screening, onboarding, and other platform workflows.
• Translate compliance data, audit findings, and regulatory issues into reporting for executive leadership and the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee.
• Build and lead a global second-line compliance team and oversee regulatory examination defense, training, and continuous improvement.

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.
• 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, centralized global policies, regulatory examination defenses, and audit responses.
• Excellent written communication and stakeholder management skills for working with executives and board audiences.

Nice to have

• 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 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 using a Three Lines of Defense model.
• Collaborate with teams across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
• US-based employees may receive medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k), disability and life insurance, and well-being benefits.
• US-based employees receive 20 paid vacation days and 12 company holidays annually.