Director, Credit Risk

Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time intelligent economy. More than 676000 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. Were 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.

Were co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore with more than 2300 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 Credit Risk team is part of Airwallexs Second Line of Defence and helps the company grow responsibly as a global financial platform.
We work at the intersection of credit FX and counterparty risk partnering closely with Product Sales Operations Treasury Finance Engineering Compliance and Legal to enable commercial growth while protecting Airwallex from financial loss and excessive risk exposure. This is a team for analytical commercially minded risk leaders who are energized by building scalable frameworks and practical controls across a fast-moving multi-currency global network.

What youll do
As Director Credit Risk you will lead Airwallexs global second-line oversight of credit FX and counterparty risk. You will set the risk guardrails that allow the business to grow safely across merchant acquiring charge cards FX treasury settlement and banking-partner activities. Reporting to the Senior Director Financial Risk you will own the global framework risk appetite limits governance and portfolio oversight for these risk areas. You will provide independent challenge to first-line decisions and act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders across the business.

This role is based in London.

Responsibilities

• Credit risk framework and risk appetite: Define implement and continuously enhance the global second-line credit risk framework including policies risk appetite thresholds limits escalation protocols and governance standards across Airwallexs products and legal entities.

• Credit portfolio oversight: Oversee credit exposures across merchant acquiring charge cards B2B and commercial activities FX pre-funding treasury-related exposures settlement flows and other relevant products.

• Underwriting and limit governance: Review and challenge first-line underwriting strategies customer and merchant risk policies credit assessments limit-setting methodologies and exception processes. Act as a senior escalation point for complex or high-value credit decisions.

• FX risk oversight: Establish and monitor appropriate second-line guardrails for FX exposures arising from pre-funding settlement customer activity treasury flows and other multi-currency activities. Challenge controls limits escalation triggers and risk reporting to ensure exposures remain within approved tolerances.

• Counterparty risk management: Set and oversee counterparty risk standards for banking partners payment partners merchants customers and other material counterparties. Establish appropriate exposure limits concentration thresholds monitoring requirements and escalation processes.

• Portfolio monitoring and early warning indicators: Lead proactive monitoring of credit FX and counterparty portfolios including exposure concentration delinquency default chargeback loss settlement liquidity-of-counterparty and other relevant risk indicators. Identify emerging trends and escalate material issues before they become systemic.

• Loss mitigation and remediation: Review and challenge first-line monitoring collections collateral prefunding reserves chargeback and other mitigation strategies. Ensure deteriorating counterparties customers merchants or exposures are identified and addressed promptly.

• New products and market expansion: Partner with Product Engineering Commercial Treasury Finance and Operations to assess and challenge the risk design of new products features markets currencies and partner arrangements before launch.

• Risk approvals and governance: Lead or support risk committee decisions material risk approvals limit exceptions breach assessments and remediation plans. Ensure decisions are documented clearly and aligned with approved risk appetite.

• Regulatory and partner engagement: Represent Credit Risk during regulatory examinations internal and external audits and reviews with banking and strategic partners. Prepare clear decision-useful materials for senior management risk committees and the Board where appropriate.

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

Minimum qualifications

• 1015 years of progressively senior experience across credit risk counterparty risk FX risk treasury risk or related financial risk disciplines within banking payments fintech or another highly regulated financial services environment.

• Deep experience designing implementing and governing second-line credit risk frameworks in a complex multi-jurisdictional organization.

• Strong understanding of credit risk identification measurement underwriting limit management monitoring mitigation provisioning loss recognition and capital implications.

• Demonstrated experience managing risk across multiple product lines such as merchant acquiring commercial or charge cards B2B lending payment processing FX treasury settlement or banking-partner activities.

• Practical experience overseeing FX and counterparty risk including exposure measurement concentration risk limits settlement risk prefunding collateral or other mitigants and escalation governance.

• Proven ability to challenge first-line decisions and communicate clear risk positions to senior executives commercial leaders product and operations teams banking partners auditors and regulators.

Preferred qualifications

• Advanced degree such as an MBA or Masters in Finance Economics Risk Management or a related field.

• Professional certification such as FRM PRM CFA or an equivalent qualification.

• Experience with automated decisioning engines credit scoring models portfolio analytics or alternative data used in underwriting and monitoring.

• Familiarity with IFRS 9 expected credit loss methodologies stress testing or other relevant prudential and accounting frameworks.

• Strong data literacy and familiarity with SQL Python or similar tools used to analyze portfolio exposure and loss trends.

• Experience working in a regulated payments fintech digital bank or financial institution with multiple licenses and banking partnerships.

• Comfort operating in a high-growth environment with evolving priorities and a bias for practical scalable execution.

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.

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.

Required Experience:

Director