Principal AI Engineer, Business Accounts

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 Define the technical and strategic vision for AI solutions that improve internal efficiency and transform the customer experience. - Build intelligent systems using language models and related AI technologies, with a focus on reliable production use cases across Airwallex’s business account ecosystem. - Design and implement robust APIs and system architecture for new AI applications, including systems that support liquidity optimisation, automated transfers and dynamic responses to business activity. - Shape the AI application roadmap and technical strategy, partnering with Product, Engineering and other cross-functional teams to turn business goals into scalable solutions. - Research, evaluate and integrate emerging AI technologies while extending existing capabilities to meet product goals. - Raise the standard for AI engineering excellence across the team through strong technical judgment, practical delivery and a focus on maintainable systems. - Diagnose application issues and software bugs, providing prompt solutions or workarounds that keep customer-facing and internal systems reliable. This role is based in Sydney, and you’ll work from the office on Monday, Thursday and Friday. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Essentials - 10+ years of experience in backend software development, with a strong interest in AI and language technologies. - A track record of delivering significant technical or business impact. - Strong proficiency in Python, TypeScript or JavaScript. - Experience designing and developing large-scale distributed systems with high concurrency, high throughput and high availability. - Experience working with vector databases. - A relevant degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or a related field. Preferred - Experience in financial services, lending, payments or credit products. - Experience building or working with SaaS products delivered as a platform. YOU'LL THRIVE HERE IF - You're comfortable owning the roadmap yourself. - You're comfortable with ambiguity. Give you a problem, not a prescription, and you'll run with it. - You default to action. You'd rather course-correct in motion than wait for perfect clarity. - You say what you mean. You're direct, but you lead with respect. - You simplify complexity rather than hiding behind it. LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR TEAM The Business Accounts team is where Cash, Yield, Lending, and the rest of our product suite come together into one unified financial experience for businesses. We're building the intelligent orchestration layer that lets customers move funds between transactional, yield-generating, and lending accounts, optimize liquidity, and respond dynamically to activity across payments, card spend, and collections. The challenge is that this connective layer doesn't exist yet: as our product suite grows, customers need it to feel programmable and automated, not like a patchwork of separate accounts. This is a brand-new team at an early stage, so you'll shape the technical foundations of a core platform from the ground up. If you want ownership building the product that sits at the center of Airwallex's business customer experience, this is where that work happens. 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 http://airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com http://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.