Director, Regulatory Compliance UK

ABOUT AIRWALLEX 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 2,700 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 https://www.airwallex.com/en-us/operating-principles to see it in full. ABOUT THE ROLE 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. As Director, Regulatory Compliance (UK), you will serve as the senior compliance authority and strategic partner for Airwallex’s rapidly expanding UK presence. Operating as a licensed Electronic Money Institution (EMI) supervised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Airwallex requires compliance leadership that sees regulatory integrity not as a roadblock, but as a critical commercial enabler and competitive differentiator. In this role, you will lead our UK compliance framework, serve as the primary interface with local regulators and industry bodies, and work cross-functionally across Product, Strategy, Commercial, and Operations to safely launch cutting-edge payment infrastructure. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Lead UK Regulatory Compliance: Lead a UK-based team of regulatory compliance professionals; own and continuously evolve the UK compliance management system, policies, registers, and operational controls to ensure ongoing compliance with FCA handbooks, PSRs, EMRs, and UK AML/CTF regimes. - Drive FCA Engagement: Act as the principal point of contact for the FCA, handling regulatory inquiries, notifications, audits, thematic reviews, and routine reporting with transparency and authority. - Product & Commercial Advisory: Partner early with Product, Commercial, and International Expansion teams to design compliant-by-default cross-border payment, issuing, acquiring, and embedded finance architectures. - Safeguarding & Governance: Oversee compliance aspects of key UK regulatory regimes including safeguardingand Consumer Duty in close partnership with Finance, Risk, Product, and other teams. - Regulatory Horizon Scanning: Monitor domestic and international regulatory developments (e.g., Consumer Duty, operational resilience, PSR APP fraud reimbursement schemes) and proactively translate emerging rules into pragmatic technical and operational roadmaps. - Team Leadership & Culture: Build, coach, and scale a high-caliber UK compliance advisory and operations team while fostering a company-wide culture of risk accountability and ethical rigor. - Board & Committee Reporting: Prepare and deliver clear, actionable regulatory compliance reporting and key risk indicator (KRI) updates to executive leadership, local operating boards, and audit/risk committees. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR Essentials - 10+ years of regulatory compliance experience within UK fintech, payment services (EMIs/APIs), neo-banking, or modern global financial institutions. - Leadership Track Record: At least 4+ years managing and developing high-performing compliance teams in high-growth environments. - Deep Regulatory Knowledge: Expert grasp of UK financial regulations, including the Payment Services Regulations (PSRs), Electronic Money Regulations (EMRs), FCA Principles for Businesses, and Consumer Duty standards. - FCA Interface Experience: Direct track record of managing formal regulator relationships, supervisory inspections, or key authorization filings with the FCA. - Pragmatic Problem-Solving: Ability to interpret complex regulatory requirements through a first-principles lens, providing creative, commercial, and defensible paths forward. - Executive Presence: Strong communication, negotiation, and written advocacy skills capable of influencing board members, executive partners, and external regulatory bodies. Nice-to-Haves - Prior experience holding an approved person / Senior Management Function (SMF) role under the FCA regime. - Background handling regulatory aspects of cross-border multi-currency schemes, merchant acquiring, or credit/lending adjacencies. - Relevant legal qualification or industry certifications (e.g., ICA Diploma in Governance, Risk & Compliance). YOU’LL THRIVE HERE IF - You own the outcome: You don't wait for permission to solve structural bottlenecks—give you a complex regulatory challenge, and you chart the solution. - You’re commercially astute: You understand that compliance is an enabler of sustainable hyper-growth, not an isolated checklist. - You balance technical precision with plain-English clarity: You can dissect statutory instruments line by line, then distill the essence clearly for engineers, sales leads, and executives. - You’re not precious about traditional playbooks: You push hard from first principles, challenging legacy banking compliance norms with modernized, technology-driven solutions. - You value in-person collaboration: You thrive working shoulder-to-shoulder with cross-functional leaders in our London hub. WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE - Within 3 Months: Complete a comprehensive assessment of our existing UK compliance controls, policies, and FCA commitments; build alignment with key UK commercial leads and partner banks. - Within 6 Months: