Senior Regulatory Counsel, ANZ

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 200,000 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 2,000 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 you're 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 you're 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.
You're humble and collaborative; turn zero-to-one ideas into real products, and you "get stuff done" end-to-end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you'll tackle complex, high-visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let's build what's next.
About the team
The Legal, Risk & Compliance (LRC) team at Airwallex is a collaborative group of legal minds and risk management experts. We're passionate about safeguarding Airwallex's 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 you'll do
As Senior Regulatory Counsel (ANZ) you will be a key regulatory legal adviser to our Australian and New Zealand businesses, sitting at the intersection of regulatory compliance, product, strategy and financial partnerships. You'll partner closely with Product Legal, Commercial Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Financial Crime Compliance and Risk to shape how we design, launch and scale products within our ANZ licences and permissions.
Your advice will play a key role in how we engage with APRA, ASIC, RBA and AUSTRAC as the local regulatory landscape evolves, including payments system modernisation and prudential reforms. This role is based in Melbourne or Sydney.
Responsibilities:

• Be an integral part of a high-performing, innovative Regulatory Legal team that handles all regulatory issues relating to our ANZ businesses, across payments, FX, cards, stored-value, acquiring and related financial services products.
• Advise local, regional and global teams (including Product, Strategy, Management, Regulatory Compliance, Financial Crime Compliance, Risk and Financial Partnerships) on Australian and New Zealand regulatory requirements for new and existing products, features and use-cases, working closely with Product Legal on structuring and go-to-market.
• Lead or support regulatory engagements with APRA, RBA, ASIC and AUSTRAC, including licence and authorisation applications (for example APRA PPF/SVF and related AFSL permissions), prudential or thematic reviews, regulatory consultations and responses to notices and information requests.
• Provide clear, commercially-grounded regulatory analysis and input in key governance forums, including compliance and risk committees, board and board-committee packs, and senior management forums, in close partnership with Regulatory Compliance.
• Monitor ANZ regulatory trends and developments (for example payments system modernisation, AML/CTF reforms, prudential standards such as CPS 230, DDO and conduct developments, and privacy reform) and translate these into practical guidance, horizon-scanning updates and implementation recommendations for product and business stakeholders.
• Advise on and help shape the design of compliance frameworks for our ANZ entities, including policies, procedures, manuals and compliance / obligations registers, partnering closely with Regulatory Compliance and Financial Crime Compliance to ensure our frameworks remain robust and up to date.
• Liaise with and manage external counsel on complex or novel regulatory and prudential issues, including licensing, capital and safeguarding, corporate restructuring (such as NOHC implementation), and regulatory investigations or supervisory reviews.

Who you are
We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.
Minimum qualifications:

• Ideally 8-10 years' post-qualification experience in financial services regulation, gained in a top-tier or reputable law firm, regulator and/or in-house at a regulated financial institution or fintech.
• Strong, demonstrable knowledge of the Australian financial services regulatory framework relevant to payments and related financial services (for example Corporations Act/AFSL regime, ASIC Act, AUSTRAC/AML-CTF regime, APRA prudential standards, RBA standards and relevant consumer protection requirements).
• Experience advising on licensing, permissions and regulatory perimeter questions, and on how regulations apply to new or evolving products, features and customer use-cases.
• Experience engaging with two or more of APRA, ASIC, RBA, AUSTRAC and Treasury, whether through licence applications, supervisory reviews, consultations or responding to regulatory notices / information requests.
• Proven ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into clear, pragmatic and actionable advice for non-lawyers in a fast-moving environment, balancing legal risk against commercial and operational considerations.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with a track record of working cross-functionally with product, compliance, risk and operations teams.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience in a high-growth fintech, payments provider or other technology-driven financial services business, particularly across multi-product platforms (for example business accounts, FX, cards, acquiring, embedded finance, stored-value).
• Direct experience of payments system modernisation, prudential licensing (for example APRA PPF/SVF), CPS-230 standard implementation, or major regulatory change programs in Australia.
• Experience contributing to or presenting at senior management meetings on regulatory and compliance issues.
• Prior involvement in drafting policy submissions or engaging in regulatory consultation processes with Treasury, regulators or industry bodies on payments, prudential or fintech topics.
• New Zealand financial services regulatory experience (or broader ANZ regional exposure) and/or experience working across multiple jurisdictions within an APAC regulatory legal role.

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 @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.
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 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.