Engineering Director

Airwallex2 days ago

Location

US - San Francisco

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 200,000 – 300,000

Level

Director

Role

Engineering Manager

Posted

Jul 23, 2026

Full TimeDirector

The role

Summary

Lead Airwallex's Spend domain engineering organization in the US, overseeing corporate cards, expense management, and spend workflows across multiple engineering squads. This director-level role requires deep technical fluency in distributed systems architecture combined with strong product thinking and team leadership capabilities to drive architectural evolution in fintech, including emerging opportunities in agentic finance and AI-driven automation.

What you'll do

Spend Domain Leadership and Product Vision: Lead the Expenses sub-domain and oversee the complete technical vision, delivery roadmap, and execution strategy in close collaboration with local product teams. Establish the technical direction for corporate cards, expense management, and spend workflows that align with Airwallex's global payments platform strategy. Own accountability for delivery quality and ensure products meet the highest standards of reliability and user experience required in financial services.

Architectural Strategy and Technical Evolution: Partner with other Engineering Managers to evolve the technical architecture across the entire Spend domain, making strategic decisions that mature the platform for future growth. Drive technical initiatives in data engineering, AI/ML integration, and analytics capabilities, particularly for emerging opportunities in agentic finance. Maintain deep technical fluency to guide architectural decisions through your team's execution rather than hands-on coding, ensuring scalability and performance across distributed systems.

Engineering Team Scaling and Development: Build and scale a high-performing engineering team in San Francisco as new squads are established within the Spend domain. Provide technical mentorship to engineering leads and individual contributors, fostering a culture of technical craftsmanship and continuous learning. Develop your direct reports through stretch opportunities, supporting their career growth while maintaining operational efficiency and delivery excellence across concurrent projects.

Operational Excellence and Execution: Drive operational excellence across your domain by establishing challenging OKRs aligned with business strategy and optimizing delivery processes. Monitor and improve engineering velocity, code quality, and system reliability through data-driven insights. Ensure consistent high-quality results across multiple concurrent projects, balancing speed of execution with rigor and correctness—critical in a regulated financial services environment.

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Strategy Alignment: Collaborate actively with Product Management, Design, Commercial, and other US Engineering Leads to translate business strategy into executable technical roadmaps. Participate in strategic planning sessions to ensure technical feasibility and optimize resource allocation. Help establish and strengthen Airwallex's US site culture and employer brand through engineering excellence and collaborative leadership in the San Francisco office.

Talent Acquisition and Team Building: Own the talent acquisition strategy for your domain, working closely with the Talent Acquisition team to source, attract, and retain top engineering talent in the competitive San Francisco market. Define engineering competencies specific to your domain's needs. Build a strong employer value proposition that appeals to senior engineers and architects interested in fintech innovation, global payments infrastructure, and AI-driven financial automation.

Financial Services Compliance and Data Integrity: Ensure your technical strategy addresses the critical requirements of a regulated financial services environment, where correctness and data integrity are paramount. Implement architectural patterns and engineering practices that maintain compliance with financial regulations while supporting high-performance systems. Guide technical decisions that balance innovation with the security and reliability standards expected in payments and spend management platforms.

Agentic Finance and AI Platform Evolution: Lead the technical evolution toward agentic finance capabilities, removing human tasks from financial workflows and replacing them with intelligent agents for expense submission, approval, and reconciliation processes. Collaborate with product and AI/ML teams to define the technical architecture supporting autonomous agents. Ensure your team develops the necessary expertise in prompt engineering, LLM integration, and workflow automation that will define next-generation expense management.

Global Coordination and Distributed Leadership: Operate effectively across global time zones while coordinating with distributed engineering teams in multiple regions. Ensure alignment between the US site and other Airwallex engineering organizations. Maintain visibility across geographically dispersed teams while building a strong local presence in San Francisco that contributes to the company's US market leadership.

Product Thinking and Business Acumen: Demonstrate strong product thinking by deeply understanding user needs, market dynamics, and competitive positioning within the spend management and corporate card space. Make data-driven prioritization decisions that optimize for business impact while maintaining technical excellence. Partner with commercial stakeholders to ensure technical roadmaps support revenue generation, customer retention, and market expansion objectives.

What we look for

Technical

Distributed Systems ArchitectureDeep expertise in designing and scaling large-scale, complex distributed systems that handle high transaction volumes with strict reliability requirements. Experience with microservices architectures, event-driven systems, and asynchronous processing patterns essential for financial platforms handling payments and real-time expense management.

Software Architecture and System DesignProven ability to make sound architectural decisions that balance performance, scalability, security, and maintainability. Experience guiding teams through architectural trade-offs and implementation of enterprise-grade systems that power mission-critical financial operations.

Backend Systems and Data EngineeringStrong background in backend platform development with understanding of data pipeline architecture, analytics infrastructure, and real-time data processing. Familiarity with databases, data warehousing solutions, and event streaming platforms used in modern fintech systems.

API Design and Integration ArchitectureExperience designing robust, well-documented APIs that facilitate integration between internal services and external customer applications. Understanding of payment processing flows, webhook systems, and third-party financial service integrations.

Cloud Infrastructure and DevOpsProficiency with cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure) and modern DevOps practices including containerization, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code. Experience managing systems at scale with emphasis on reliability, observability, and security.

Cybersecurity and Financial ComplianceStrong understanding of security architecture, encryption standards, PCI DSS compliance requirements, and data protection regulations relevant to financial services. Experience implementing security best practices in regulated environments.

AI/ML Integration and Data ScienceEmerging understanding or hands-on experience with AI/ML systems integration, particularly large language models, prompt engineering, and building intelligent agents. Familiarity with machine learning operations (MLOps) and incorporating data science capabilities into production systems.

Education

Computer Science or Engineering DegreeBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical field. Demonstrates foundational knowledge in algorithms, data structures, and computer systems design.

Advanced Degree or Equivalent ExperienceMaster's degree in Computer Science, MBA, or equivalent advanced technical certifications are a plus. Extensive hands-on software engineering experience (10+ years) can substitute for traditional advanced education, particularly if combined with demonstrated technical leadership.

Experience

10+ Years Software EngineeringMinimum 10 years of progressive experience in software engineering roles, from individual contributor through engineering leadership positions. Demonstrated ability to grow and evolve through increasingly complex technical and organizational challenges in technology companies.

5+ Years Engineering LeadershipMinimum 5 years in formal engineering leadership roles such as Engineering Manager, Senior Engineering Manager, Director of Engineering, or equivalent titles. Proven track record of successfully leading engineering teams through growth phases, organizational changes, and technical transformations.

People Management and Team BuildingHands-on experience managing managers or Engineering Leads, demonstrating ability to develop high-performing leaders. Track record of building and scaling engineering teams, implementing effective hiring processes, and creating cultures of technical excellence and continuous learning.

Product Management PartnershipDemonstrated success collaborating closely with Product Management teams to define technical roadmaps, prioritize features, and drive business outcomes. Experience translating business requirements into executable engineering strategies and balancing business priorities with technical health.

High-Growth Environment NavigationProven ability to thrive in fast-paced, high-growth environments where priorities shift rapidly and execution speed is critical. Experience operating with ownership mentality, making decisions with incomplete information, and driving incremental improvements at scale.

Fintech or Regulated Industry ExperiencePreferred background in financial technology, payments processing, banking services, or similarly regulated industries. Understanding of the unique challenges in building compliant systems, managing financial data, and operating under regulatory scrutiny.

Distributed Team LeadershipExperience successfully leading engineering teams across multiple geographic locations and time zones. Demonstrated ability to maintain alignment, culture, and productivity in distributed organizational structures.

Skills

Required skills

Engineering Leadership and Team DevelopmentAbility to recruit, mentor, and develop high-performing engineers and engineering managers. Demonstrates strategic thinking about team composition, career development, and creating psychological safety for innovation and accountability.

Product Strategy and Business AcumenStrong understanding of product management principles, market dynamics, and commercial drivers. Ability to translate business objectives into technical roadmaps and make prioritization decisions that optimize for long-term value creation.

Architectural Decision MakingDemonstrated expertise in evaluating technology options, making architecture trade-offs, and guiding teams through complex technical decisions. Strong judgment in balancing innovation with stability, particularly in financial services contexts.

Cross-Functional CollaborationProven ability to work effectively with Product, Design, Commercial, and Finance teams. Skilled at building consensus, managing competing priorities, and maintaining positive relationships across organizational boundaries.

Operational ExcellenceExperience establishing metrics, OKRs, and processes that drive team performance. Ability to identify bottlenecks, implement process improvements, and maintain consistent delivery quality across multiple concurrent initiatives.

Technical Fluency in Distributed SystemsDeep understanding of modern distributed systems, microservices architectures, scalability challenges, and reliability patterns. Ability to evaluate technical decisions and guide architectural direction without necessarily implementing code personally.

Communication and Executive PresenceStrong communication skills for presenting technical strategy to executives, product leaders, and engineering teams. Ability to simplify complex technical concepts and build alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.

Strategic Thinking and Long-Term VisionAbility to balance short-term execution with long-term platform evolution. Experience building technical roadmaps that anticipate future needs in rapidly evolving fintech landscape while maintaining current system stability.

Data-Driven Decision MakingComfort with metrics, analytics, and using data to inform decisions about engineering investments, team scaling, and technical priorities. Experience implementing observability and using insights to drive improvements.

Nice to have

AI/ML Systems and Agentic AutomationExperience building or leading teams that integrate AI/ML capabilities into production systems. Familiarity with large language models, prompt engineering, and designing systems that support autonomous agents and intelligent workflow automation.

Payment Systems and Fintech ExpertiseDeep background in payments processing, card networks, expense management systems, or financial APIs. Understanding of payment flows, settlement processes, and the unique reliability requirements of financial systems.

Regulatory Compliance and Risk ManagementKnowledge of financial regulations, compliance frameworks (PCI DSS, AML/KYC), and ability to architect systems that balance innovation with regulatory requirements. Experience navigating regulatory reviews and compliance audits.

Startup or Scale-up ExperienceBackground in high-growth startups or scale-ups where you've built teams and platforms from the ground up or through hyper-growth phases. Entrepreneurial mindset with bias toward action and continuous experimentation.

International/Distributed Systems OperationsExperience operating or scaling engineering organizations across multiple countries, time zones, and regulatory regimes. Understanding of global infrastructure, localization requirements, and cross-border compliance.

Cost Optimization and Infrastructure EfficiencyTrack record of optimizing infrastructure costs, engineering efficiency, and cloud resource utilization while maintaining performance. Experience making cost-benefit trade-offs in high-scale systems.

Open Source Contribution and Community LeadershipActive participation in open source projects or technical communities. Demonstrates continuous learning, contribution to the broader engineering community, and influence beyond direct team.

Data Engineering and Analytics PlatformsHands-on experience with data warehousing, analytics infrastructure, real-time data pipelines, and BI tools. Understanding of how to architecture systems that support business intelligence and data-driven decision making at scale.

Agile and Lean MethodologiesDemonstrated expertise in agile development practices, lean principles, and continuous delivery methodologies. Experience implementing effective sprint planning, retrospectives, and process optimization in dynamic team environments.

Successful M&A IntegrationExperience successfully integrating engineering teams or platforms following acquisitions or mergers. Ability to navigate organizational change, consolidate technical approaches, and maintain team morale during transitions.