(Senior) Counsel, Commercial Legal, Japan

About Airwallex

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 200000 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 2000 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 youre ready to do the most ambitious work of your career join us.

Attributes We Value

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 youre 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.

Youre humble and collaborative; turn zerotoone ideas into real products and you get stuff done end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here youll tackle complex highvisibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you lets build whats next.

About the team

The Legal Risk & Compliance (LRC) team at Airwallex is a collaborative group of legal minds and risk management experts. Were passionate about safeguarding Airwallexs 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 youll do

Airwallex is looking for an experienced Senior Lead Counsel who is fluent in Japanese to support our fast growing commercial legal team across APAC (with an emphasis on our new but fast-growing JP market). You will support a complex set of fintech products that will challenge your problem solving and critical thinking skills. You will support a wide variety of commercial legal matters supporting Airwallexs growing Sales team and help us build for scale. This is a strategic leadership position with executive visibility and you will be a key advisor to Airwallexs APAC go-to-market leadership team and a senior leader on the legal team.

This position is based in Japan.

Responsibilities:

• Drive complex deals. Personally lead negotiations on high-stakes enterprise commercial and strategic partnership deals across APAC (with a strong emphasis on our JP business) many with significant cross-border elements.

• Build for scale. Develop and implement an innovative strategy for delivering efficient and effective commercial legal support. Drive the creation and maintenance of scalable templates playbooks and processes to support our rapidly growing business.

• Be a strategic partner. Act as a key advisor to our dynamic globally distributed commercial leadership. Partner with Sales Partnerships and Strategy teams to scale our go-to-market efforts and advance multi-product and multi-jurisdictional deal strategies.

• Enhance Efficiency. Partner with our data and operations teams to leverage technology automation and data-driven insights to increase the efficiency and impact of the commercial legal function.

• Collaborate Globally. Work closely and effectively with Airwallexs global legal compliance and risk teams on deals and projects that involve multiple jurisdictions

• Contribute to Culture. Make a positive contribution to the culture of the Airwallex legal team the APAC leadership team and the company as a whole.

Who you are

Were looking for people who meet the minimum qualifications for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have but are not mandatory.

Must-Haves:

• Law degree from a top law school 6 years of post-qualification experience and at least some experience at a top law firm.

• Fluency in Japanese (both written and spoken) is essential due to the need to negotiate and review contracts and communicate with key stakeholders in Japan.

• Excellent communication drafting negotiation and writing skills.

• The ability to explain complex legal concepts to various (often non-legal) audiences and the ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects and deals.

• High motivation and the ability to operate independently and pivot quickly within a fast-paced rapidly changing environment.

• A learners mentality: you are consistently looking to take on new and diverse challenges and expand your knowledge beyond your current areas of expertise.

• A collaborative and empathetic mindset a good sense of humor and a keen understanding of how to work effectively with colleagues from different teams and backgrounds.

• Ability to translate complex legal and risk issues into clear succinct and actionable guidance.

• High integrity sound judgment and an unflappable demeanor.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Experience at a fintech or high-growth and/or globally distributed company.

• Experience drafting and negotiating technology transactions SaaS agreements and other customer-facing services agreements.

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 @ email address. Please apply only through 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.

Equal opportunity

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 dont 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.