Senior Regulatory Counsel, APAC

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 150,000 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 1,700 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$6.2 billion and backed by world-leading investors including Visa, Airtree, Blackbird, Sequoia, DST Global, Greenoaks, Salesforce Ventures, Lone Pine, and Square Peg, 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.

About the team

Airwallex’s Regulatory Legal team is a high-impact, collaborative group that plays a central role in enabling our expansion and success across the regions we’re present in. We support Airwallex’s continued growth by providing expert legal guidance on regulatory matters, partnering closely with Product Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Financial Crime Compliance, and other teams to deliver innovative financial products compliantly and at scale. This is a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment where you’ll work alongside committed colleagues, engage in strategic projects with global reach, and have direct influence on business-critical decisions. We value curiosity, ownership, and the ambition to drive outcomes in a complex, ever-evolving regulatory landscape.

What you'll do

You will be based in Singapore, but will have multi-regional responsibility by supporting regions in the broader Southeast Asia region. As Senior Regulatory Counsel, you’ll be responsible for navigating, shaping, and communicating the legal and regulatory landscape across select Southeast Asian jurisdictions, with a focus on driving business success while ensuring compliance. Leveraging your expertise, you'll play a pivotal role in enabling Airwallex’s product launches and market expansions, ensuring frameworks and policies keep pace with regulatory developments, and championing best practices internally and externally. This dynamic role is ideal for someone who enjoys wearing multiple hats and solving complex issues and blockers for our clients, is detail oriented, willing to take on challenges and changes, obsessively curious and intellectually honest, thrives on taking actions and delivering impactful results, and aims to inspire and be inspired.

Responsibilities:

• Be responsible for all regulatory legal issues relating to select Southeast Asia jurisdictions, acting as the point of contact for cross-functional matters, regulatory analysis, and strategic advice.

• Monitor, report, and influence trends and developments of regulatory issues in select Southeast Asia jurisdictions, actively identifying and anticipating changes that may impact business operations or strategic objectives.

• Partner closely with Product Legal, Regulatory Compliance and Financial Crime Compliance teams to ensure robust compliance with local and regional laws and regulations.

• Support local and global Product, Strategy, and Management teams for new market entry or expansion of regulatory licences in existing markets, providing regulatory mapping and licensing strategy.

• Liaise with senior Airwallex stakeholders globally, providing timely, pragmatic regulatory legal advice and risk assessments on various business initiatives.

• Manage external legal counsel and consultants, ensuring high-quality, cost-effective support is aligned with Airwallex’s business drivers and risk appetite.

• Lead the development and management of Airwallex’s regulatory submissions and filings in Southeast Asian jurisdictions; internally report on regulatory requirements to ensure timely, accurate filings.

• Support government relations outreach to legislators and regulatory agencies, helping to shape policy and regulatory approaches relevant to the business.

Qualifications:

• At least 8-10 years of relevant experience.

• Strong regulatory experience gained in the fintech industry, reputable law firms and/or financial institutions. A mix of private practice and in-house experience is ideal but not mandatory.

• Deep experience and demonstrated success advising on regulatory matters and handling regulatory submissions, filings, and regulatory strategy.

• Sound working knowledge of the financial services regulatory environment in one or more Southeast Asian jurisdictions, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, or Thailand (experience with Bank Negara Malaysia, State Bank of Vietnam, and/or Bank of Thailand is especially valuable).

• Experience supporting expansion into new markets and launching new regulatory licences in the fintech, payments, or financial services sectors will be advantageous.

• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally and build trust with business, legal, compliance and external counsel stakeholders.

• Proactive, results-driven, and ownership-oriented, with a clear track record of managing multiple priorities and deadlines.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; ability to influence, explain complex legal topics to non-lawyers, and frame business-relevant solutions.

• Collaborative team player, embraces managing ambiguity, and thriving in fast-paced, evolving environments.

Additional information:

At Airwallex you’ll have the ability to make an impact in a rapidly growing, global fintech. We want you to share in our success, which is why you’ll be offered a competitive salary plus valuable equity within Airwallex. We also like to ensure we create the best environment for our people by providing a collaborative open office space with a fully stocked kitchen. We organize regular team building events and we give our people the freedom to be creative.

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.

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.