Compliance Senior Director & MLRO, US (Fintech)

Location: New York, United States

Company

Airwallex is a global payments and financial platform providing business accounts, payments, spend management, treasury, and embedded finance solutions.

What you will do

• Lead, mentor, and scale the AMER financial crime compliance team across active jurisdictions and states.
• Manage regulatory relationships and high-stakes examinations with FinCEN, NYDFS, state banking departments, FINTRAC, and other authorities.
• Oversee regional financial crime operations, reporting workflows, and the application of global compliance standards.
• Monitor BSA/AML, USA PATRIOT Act, sanctions, and other financial crime regulatory developments.
• Provide second-line compliance sign-off on high-risk decisions and complex escalations to the Governance and Risk Committee.
• Advise on product requirements, acceptable-use policies, customer use cases, state money transmitter licenses, and regional market entry.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Law, Criminology, Public Policy, Finance, Business Administration, 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 of senior leadership experience managing multi-jurisdictional compliance teams or serving as a BSA/AML Officer or MLRO in the US or Canada.
• Proven experience interacting with AMER regulators and managing regulatory examinations and state licensing audits.
• Experience advising on product launches, US state money transmitter licensing, and complex corporate customer use cases.

Nice to have

• Juris Doctor or master’s degree in regulatory compliance, law, or financial crime.
• Advanced designations such as CAMS-Audit, CGSS, or CAMS-RM.
• Deep experience with US money transmission, electronic money institutions, virtual accounts, multi-currency wallets, and cross-border payments.
• Experience partnering with Product, Risk, and Commercial teams on feature launches and corporate onboarding.
• Strong data literacy and experience with GRC systems, operational metrics, and compliance dashboards.

Culture & Benefits

• Work within an independent second-line Financial Crime Compliance function using a Three Lines of Defense model.
• Collaborate with global FCC leadership, product executives, and regional business leaders.
• Address complex, high-visibility financial crime risks across global entities and expanding markets.
• Participate in building compliance training for regional business units, commercial teams, and US/AMER staff.
• Airwallex has more than 2,300 employees across 27 offices worldwide.