Senior Director of Risk Assurance (Monitoring Framework & Reporting)

The Global Risk team at Airwallex plays a critical role in enabling the company’s growth by building a strong, scalable, and globally consistent approach to risk management. As Global Lead of Risk Assurance, you will build and lead Airwallex’s global second line risk assurance capability across the US and EMEA. This is a Senior Director role for someone who can combine the rigor of an elite auditor with the technical fluency needed to validate controls in a high-velocity fintech environment.

Responsibilities

Build and lead Airwallex’s Global Risk Monitoring & Testing Programme; Design a risk-based assurance framework; Drive the evolution from point-in-time manual testing to continuous, data-enabled control validation; Ensure assurance coverage keeps pace with business change; Oversee independent testing of complex financial risk controls; Direct deep-dive testing of operational and product controls; Lead testing of non-FCC regulatory and partner-related obligations; Establish clear standards for finding articulation, severity calibration, root cause analysis, and evidence quality; Partner with Enterprise Risk and first line leaders; Produce thematic reporting and trend analysis for senior leadership; Build and maintain a regulator-ready and audit-ready repository; Serve as a senior lead during regulatory examinations; Build and lead a high-performing global team of assurance professionals

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Information Systems, Computer Science, or another relevant quantitative discipline; 12 to 15+ years of experience in Internal Audit, Compliance Monitoring, Risk Testing, Risk Assurance, or a related control function within fintech, payments, banking, remittance, or another highly regulated financial services environment; 5+ years of experience leading a global or multi-jurisdiction assurance, testing, monitoring, or control validation function at a senior level; Strong command of second or third line control testing methodologies, including risk-based planning, sampling, design and operating effectiveness assessment, issue writing, and remediation validation; Demonstrated experience overseeing assurance activity across multiple risk domains, including financial risk, operational risk, technology risk, and regulatory compliance obligations; Experience translating testing outcomes into clear, decision-useful reporting for senior executives, governance forums, regulators, auditors, or financial partners; Direct experience acting as a senior interface for regulatory exams, external audits, Internal Audit reviews, or partner bank assurance exercises in high-stakes environments; Strong executive presence, sound judgment, and the ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively and independently; Comfort operating in a fast-paced environment with high standards, evolving priorities, and significant cross-functional collaboration

Nice to have

Master’s degree in Enterprise Risk Management, Technology Risk, Business Administration, or another relevant field; Professional certifications such as CIA, CISA, CFA, FRM, CPA, or similar credentials spanning assurance, technology, and financial risk disciplines; Direct experience designing or scaling an assurance framework in a cloud-native, API-driven, high-volume fintech, payments, digital banking, or other modern financial infrastructure environment; Strong data literacy, including experience using SQL, Python, BI tools, or automated workflows to improve monitoring, testing, and control validation; Ability to work effectively with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Operations, Treasury, and Compliance teams to test how automated systems, models, and control logic perform in production; Experience operating across multiple regulatory jurisdictions, particularly the US, UK, Europe, and APAC; Experience supporting partner bank oversight, prudential reviews, licensing commitments, or regulator-driven remediation programmes in a payments or embedded finance model