Associate Director, Transaction Monitoring

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 Airwallex is strengthening its global second-line Transaction Monitoring capability across products, payment rails and jurisdictions. You'll set the governance, challenge and modernisation agenda for a high-volume, global financial crime environment. - Own Airwallex’s global second-line Transaction Monitoring strategy, governance framework and policy standards across products, payment rails, customer base and jurisdictions. - Drive independent 2LOD challenge and oversight of 1LOD Transaction Monitoring teams, raising investigative rigour, alert disposition quality and consistency in suspicious activity detection. - Oversee second line regional SAR/STR/SMR reporting teams in performance of L3 review and preparation of suspicious activity reports according to relevant requirements, in coordination with regional and local MLROs. - Oversee the second line global Financial Intelligence Unit in performance of complex investigations, including cross-regional reviews, internal and external referrals, intelligence scanning and emerging risk typology development. - Collaborate with the FCC Global Models lead on performance of appropriate governance of the global Transaction Monitoring rule lifecycle, covering typology identification, scenario logic, segmentation, threshold tuning, and above- and below-the-line testing across cross-border payments and multi-currency accounts. - Lead the evolution from threshold-based monitoring towards AI-driven anomaly detection, machine-learning behavioural clustering and automated alert triage while maintaining explainability and regulatory defensibility. - Partner with Product, Data Science and Engineering to embed Transaction Monitoring logic into core transaction-processing systems and real-time payment infrastructure. - Resolve complex financial crime escalations, including novel laundering schemes, sanctions-evasion typologies and complex Suspicious Activity Report (SAR / STR) decisions. - Improve model effectiveness by partnering with Model Risk Management, Quantitative teams and Audit to validate Transaction Monitoring models and maintain coverage mapping against global regulatory standards. - Represent Airwallex’s Transaction Monitoring programme in regulatory examinations, including FCA, MAS, HKMA and AUSTRAC reviews, as well as partner-bank due diligence. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR ESSENTIALS - 10+ years of dedicated AML and financial crime experience, with deep technical and operational expertise in Transaction Monitoring across global cross-border payments, corporate banking, FX or fintech platforms. - 3+ years of experience leading, managing or mentoring compliance professionals in a global or multi-regional setting. - Proven experience establishing 2LOD oversight frameworks, rule-governance processes and effective challenge mechanisms for high-volume, automated Transaction Monitoring platforms. - Demonstrated ability to work with large datasets, SQL, data analytics and modern Transaction Monitoring models, translating business logic into technical parameters for Data Science and Engineering teams. - Practical experience evaluating, testing or deploying AI/ML tools, graph analytics or automated dispositioning models in a regulatory compliance environment. - Strong understanding of global AML rules, typology standards and reporting expectations across key regulators, including FCA, FinCEN, MAS, HKMA and AUSTRAC. - A proven track record of managing regulatory examinations, internal or external audits and banking-partner inquiries relating to Transaction Monitoring systems and controls. - Exceptional stakeholder-management and communication skills, with the ability to explain complex quantitative Transaction Monitoring models and risk decisions clearly to senior executives and external authorities. - Based in the UK, ideally within reach of Birmingham, with the agility to collaborate across APAC, EMEA and Americas time zones. - CAMS, CFCS, CFE or equivalent industry certification. - A bachelor’s degree. PREFERRED - A quantitative, technical, data or legal degree. - Experience working across high-volume cross-border payments, corporate banking, FX or fintech platforms. - Experience partnering with Model Risk Management, Quantitative teams, Product, Data Science, Engineering and Audit. YOU'LL THRIVE HERE IF - You've operated in a compliance-heavy environment and know how to move fast without cutting the corners that matter. - You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway. - You’re comfortable operating across time zones with a globally distributed team, including colleagues based in APAC and EMEA. - You simplify complexity rather than hiding behind it. - You can advocate hard for a position, then fully support the team's direction once a call is made. LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR TEAM Regulatory & Compliance is where we build the trust, discipline, and operational r