Senior Regulatory Counsel, Americas

ABOUT AIRWALLEX Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 675,000 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 2,700 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 https://www.airwallex.com/en-us/operating-principles to see it in full. HOW YOU'LL MAKE IMPACT You'll advise on regulatory matters across the Americas, helping Airwallex navigate complex payments and financial services requirements, support cross-border products and expansion, and manage regulatory risk. - Own regulatory legal matters across the Americas, advising on existing licences and registrations and potential future licence applications. - Monitor, report on, and influence regulatory developments affecting payments and financial services, identifying implications for business operations and strategic objectives. - Partner with Product Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Risk, and Financial Crime Compliance on applicable requirements, including money transmission, stored value, FX, remittance, and card issuing rules. - Support Product, Strategy, Management, and regional Commercial teams with market entry, regulatory mapping, licensing advice, and licence expansion for new products and features. - Provide pragmatic regulatory legal advice and risk assessments to global stakeholders on initiatives affecting the Americas. - For the Senior Regulatory Counsel level, lead complex regulatory workstreams and engagements with regulators in key jurisdictions, contributing to regional regulatory strategy. For the Regulatory Counsel level, own defined workstreams with support and mentorship from senior members of the team. - Manage external legal counsel and consultants in the Americas, ensuring effective support aligned with Airwallex's business drivers and risk appetite. - Advise on ongoing regulatory obligations, reports, and filings in relevant Americas jurisdictions, partnering with Regulatory Compliance on timely and accurate submissions. - Support government relations outreach to legislators and regulatory agencies in key Americas markets, helping shape policy and regulatory approaches relevant to the business. - Use AI and other tools to improve the scale, efficiency, and effectiveness of the Regulatory Legal team. This role is remote in the US, with a preference for candidates in New York or San Francisco. Employees based in New York or San Francisco are expected to work from the office three days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Essentials - Qualified lawyer with relevant post-qualification experience. The Senior Regulatory Counsel level is expected to have at least eight years of relevant experience, while the Regulatory Counsel level is expected to have at least five years. - Strong regulatory experience gained in fintech, reputable law firms, and/or financial institutions, ideally covering payments, e-money, FX, remittances, and/or card issuing in the Americas. - Experience advising on regulatory matters, submissions, filings, and regulatory strategy in financial services or payments, ideally including direct engagement with federal and state or provincial regulators. - Strong understanding of the financial services regulatory environment in the Americas, particularly payments, remittance, FX, issuing, and digital financial services. - Strong stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally and build trust with business, legal, compliance, and external-counsel stakeholders. - Proactive, results-driven, and ownership-oriented, with a clear track record of managing multiple priorities and deadlines. - Ability to influence stakeholders, explain complex legal topics to non-lawyers, and frame business-relevant solutions. - Collaborative and comfortable working through ambiguity in evolving environments. Preferred - A mix of private-practice and in-house experience. - Experience supporting expansion into new markets and launching regulatory licences in fintech, payments, or financial services. - Experience advising on consumer and commercial regulatory matters, including state money transmitter licensing requirements and oversight by federal prudential regulators, with familiarity with regulations such as Reg E, UDAAP, and TILA. - Experience using, deploying, or developing RegTech, LegalTech, or AI tools to enhance the legal function. - Canadian payment-processing and money-services-business experience, including familiarity with RPAA, FINTRAC, and provincial financial licensing. YOU'LL THRIVE HERE IF - You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway. - You're comfortable with ambiguity. Give you a problem, not a prescription, and you'll run with it. - You connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details. - You simplify complexity rather than hiding behind it. - You enjoy working closely with people across multiple countries and time zones as part of one connected, global team, including flexing your hours occasionally to make that connection work. LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR TEAM Regulatory & Compliance is where we build the trust, discipline, and operational resilience required to scale a gen