Associate Director, Payments/Scheme Economics

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. WHO YOU ARE We are looking for an Associate Director, Payments/Scheme Economics to own the integrity, visibility and management of Airwallex’s payment costs, starting with card scheme fees and interchange fees across Visa and Mastercard. Reporting to the Head of Strategic Finance, you will be the subject matter expert on scheme economics, translating complex and rapidly changing network rules into accurate system configurations, financial outcomes and business decisions. You will ensure we understand what every payment should cost, that those costs are accurately reflected across our systems and financials, and that we systematically identify opportunities to improve payment economics as we scale. Over time, the remit will expand across other card schemes, local payment methods and the broader payments cost base. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Own scheme economics and rule interpretation: Maintain deep expertise across scheme fees, interchange and network rules. Interpret scheme bulletins, operating regulations and fee schedules, translating changes into clear financial, product and operational requirements. - Ensure accurate payment cost configuration: Translate complex scheme rules into fee tables, eligibility criteria and transaction-level logic. Partner with Product and Engineering to ensure cost calculation, allocation and customer billing accurately reflect current network rules across markets and payment flows. - Protect payment cost integrity: Establish robust governance, testing and controls across scheme configurations. Reconcile expected costs against actual network charges, identify anomalies and leakage, and drive root-cause resolution. - Build granular visibility into payment economics: Develop robust models and analytics across markets, products, payment methods and transaction types, creating a clear view of unit economics, margin drivers and cost movements. - Drive structural cost and margin optimization: Identify, quantify and execute opportunities to improve economics through transaction qualification, BIN routing, cost configuration, and other levers. Partner with Product, Finance and Commercial teams to prioritize the highest-value opportunities. - Shape pricing and commercial decisions: Translate underlying payment economics into recommendations for customer pricing, product design, new market launches and commercial strategy, ensuring growth is supported by sustainable unit economics. - Build scalable infrastructure and automation: Partner with Product, Engineering, and Data teams to strengthen cost engines, fee allocation logic, dashboards and automated controls. Apply AI and advanced analytics to accelerate rule interpretation, detect anomalies and surface optimization opportunities. - Own complex scheme economics issues: Serve as the escalation point for scheme pricing, interchange and rule-related questions, working directly with Visa, Mastercard and other payment partners where required. WHAT YOU’LL BRING - 7+ years of relevant experience in payments, acquiring, issuing, card networks, payment infrastructure or related roles, ideally within a global PSP, acquirer, scheme, issuer or fintech. - Deep knowledge of card payment economics, particularly Visa and Mastercard interchange, scheme fees, transaction qualification and network rules. - Strong ability to operationalize complex payment rules, translating fee schedules and network requirements into system logic, configurations and controls. - Experience with payment cost systems and controls, including interchange tables, scheme fee logic, BIN-based rules, transaction attributes or similar payment configurations. - Strong analytical and quantitative capabilities, including experience working with transaction-level data, economic modeling and reconciliation of expected versus actual payment costs. - Strong commercial judgment, with the ability to connect detailed payment mechanics to pricing, product decisions and margin optimization. - Exceptional attention to detail and ownership, with the discipline required to manage complex rules where small errors can create meaningful financial impact at scale. - Strong cross-functional execution, with the ability to work effectively across Product, Engineering, Finance, Data, Operations and external payment partners. 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