Senior Manager, Strategy & Operations CEO Office

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 2,300 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 to see it in full.

About the team

The CEO Office Strategy & Operations team partners directly with Airwallex's executive leadership on the company's most important priorities. We work across regions and functions to drive clarity, build scalable operating models, and ensure the right work gets done at the right time. The team combines rigorous problem‑solving with hands‑on execution, rolling up our sleeves to take complex, zero‑to‑one initiatives from idea to reality. It is a high‑visibility, fast‑paced environment where you will collaborate with leaders across Product, Engineering, Legal, Risk, Finance, and Operations to shape the next phase of Airwallex's global growth.

What you'll do

As Senior Manager, Global Expansion, CEO Office, you will own the end-to-end expansion of Airwallex into new markets across EMEA and the Middle East — from defining the market-entry strategy through licensing, product readiness, operational launch and prepapration for commercial scale-up. You will work directly with executive leadership to solve the complex regulatory, product and operating problems required to establish Airwallex as a local financial platform in each market.

This role is based in London.

Responsibilities:

• Own new country expansion strategy: Lead the strategy for where and how Airwallex expands next across EMEA and the Middle East (for example Western Europe, the Gulf, Nordics) — sizing the opportunity, choosing the markets, and defining what it takes to win in each one.

• Design the market entry model: Decide the licensing path, entity structure, and commercial model for each market, translating regulatory and licensing requirements into the operating model Airwallex needs on the ground.

• Shape the product roadmap: Work with Product and Engineering to turn regulatory and licensing requirements into concrete product scope and sequencing, so the roadmap is built around what's needed to launch and scale locally.

• Build the operating system for launches: "Vibe‑code" the tools, templates, and operating rhythms for market entry — using AI‑assisted research, drafting and automation (for example licence mapping, competitor analysis, Global Expansion dashboards, reporting) to systematise how Airwallex expands and remove manual work.

• Run governance: Own the go/no‑go and launch‑readiness process — cross‑functional sign‑off, risk assessment, and mitigation plans across product, operational, regulatory, and commercial dimensions — so no single function becomes the blocker to going live.

• Flex onto priority CEO Office initiatives beyond core market launches, such as strategic reviews, restructuring or migration projects, crisis response workstreams, or cross‑market structuring exercises where disciplined leadership and executive‑level communication are required.

Who you are

Minimum qualifications:

• 5–8 years of experience in top‑tier strategy consulting (MBB or equivalent), regulatory/financial services law, or strategy / expansion roles in fintech or payments, with meaningful exposure to market‑entry or licensing‑driven projects.

• Proven track record of owning complex, multi‑stakeholder programs end to end (not just contributing to workstreams), including planning, execution, and executive‑level updates.

• Strong operating discipline: confident structuring multi‑workstream programs, running governance cadences, managing dependencies across multiple functions, and driving timely decision‑making.

• Experience working with or around regulatory and licensing topics in financial services (for example payments, e‑money, banking, or card issuing), and comfort engaging with legal, risk, and compliance counterparts on requirements and constraints.

• Demonstrated use of AI tools in your day‑to‑day work (for example for regulatory research, licence mapping, competitive analysis, documentation, or workflow automation), with good judgment on verification and when to pull in human experts.

• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills, including the ability to simplify complex issues, influence senior leaders, and create clear, concise materials for steering forums.

• High ownership mindset, comfort with ambiguity, and willingness to get hands‑on in the details to move launches forward in a fast‑paced environment.

Preferred qualifications:

• Direct experience driving new market launches or licence applications in EMEA or the Middle East for a fintech, payments provider, or financial institution.

• Background that combines strategic problem‑solving and execution, for example time in both consulting and an in‑house operating role, or in both legal/regulatory and commercial or product‑adjacent roles.

• Familiarity with cross‑functional Global Expansion and product launch processes, including how Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Operations typically intersect for new‑country launches.

• Experience working in or closely with a CEO Office, strategy & operations, or similar central team that runs company‑level initiatives and special projects.

• Comfort building and iterating light‑weight AI tooling to standardise how we run launches and to automate status, risk tracking, and dependency management over time.

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.