Director, Employment Legal

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 200,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,200 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$8 billion and backed by world-leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.

We hire successful builders with founder-like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role-related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.

You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.

The Legal, Risk & Compliance (LRC) team at Airwallex is a collaborative group of legal minds and risk management experts. We're passionate about safeguarding Airwallex's operations, fostering a culture of compliance and ethical conduct, and ensuring we navigate the global financial landscape with integrity. We provide expert guidance and support to all areas of the business, proactively identifying, mitigating, and managing legal and financial risks.

What you’ll do 

You will be responsible for all group wide litigation and employment matters. You will work closely with stakeholders globally to manage contentious matters and employment related issues i.e People and Talent Acquisition team to establish standard operating procedures and templates and streamline processes. This will be an exciting opportunity to help shape the next phase of Airwallex’s growth.

This hybrid role is based in San Francisco or New York City.

Responsibilities:

• Steer a wide range of contentious and non-contentious employment matters including employee and contractor negotiations, disputes, unfair dismissal claims, employee & workplace investigations, etc.

• Lead litigious matters and manage outside counsel involving Airwallex and/or its counterparties. Work closely with stakeholders to devise solutions for Airwallex that minimize risk in a prudent and effective manner.

• Trusted advisor to the Global People & Talent team on employee policies, employee related matters, including employee compensation insurance, investigations, termination, conflict of interest.

• Maintaining standards of employment contract templates and operating procedures for the Global People & Talent team. These include employment, contractor and people related contracts, including employer of record (EOR) service providers. 

• Counsel to other Legal Specialist areas (including Data & Privacy, Product teams)

• Partner with the Data & Privacy team to ensure advice given to People & Talent and the Group on HR data handling are consistent with appropriate data protection laws and Group policies.

• Orchestrating Employee Equity Programs, with assistance from the Company Secretary and Airwallex’s whistleblowing platform and policy.

Who you are

We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

• A minimum of 10 years post qualification experience with litigation and employment law experience obtained with top firms and in-house roles, preferably with multinational corporations. 

• Experience managing and growing a team of lawyers.

• Experience dealing with US litigation - both employment and non-employment related.

• Strong stakeholder management skills - ability to provide actionable, practicable advice to stakeholders.

• Strong adaptability with managing new / unfamiliar jurisdictions or issues - ability to manage and lead external counsel in an organized and cost efficient way.

• Experience in dealing with contentious and non-contentious litigation matters and employment law issues.

• Experience in creating standard operating procedures (SOPs) and templates, creating “best practices” for the HR / Employment team.

• Relishes and thrives in a fast paced, fast growing company.

Preferred qualifications: 

• Litigation / employment law experience dealing with EMEA matters.

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 email address. Please apply only through 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.

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.