Engineering Director, Payments Platform

Engineering Manager · Director · Full Time

US - San FranciscoUSD 237k – 407k1w ago
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Role

What you'll do.

As Engineering Director for Payments Platform at Airwallex, you will lead multiple engineering teams responsible for building and operating mission-critical payment processing infrastructure serving 250,000+ global businesses. This director-level role combines people leadership, technical architecture, and delivery ownership, requiring deep expertise in distributed payment systems, team development, and fintech operations across high-volume, regulated financial infrastructure.

Responsibilities

  • Define and Execute Payments Platform Vision: Own end-to-end strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Airwallex's unified Payments Platform covering payment processing, intelligent routing, settlement, reconciliation, and partner integrations. Ensure scalability and reliability across global markets while maintaining compliance with local payment regulations and standards.
  • Lead and Develop Engineering Organization: Manage, mentor, and coach Engineering Managers and senior technical talent across multiple cross-functional squads. Build a culture of ownership, technical excellence, and continuous improvement while driving sustainable hiring, retention, and team growth in competitive talent markets.
  • Drive Technical Architecture and Platform Excellence: Provide architectural direction for high-volume, mission-critical payment systems handling billions in transaction volume. Set organizational standards for reliability, observability, security, scalability, performance optimization, and developer productivity across the entire payments infrastructure.
  • Execute with Speed and Operational Rigor: Define clear OKRs aligned with business growth objectives, manage execution across multiple concurrent initiatives, and establish accountability for high-quality outcomes. Balance short-term delivery velocity with long-term platform investments, technical debt management, and operational health.
  • Collaborate Cross-Functionally on Business Alignment: Partner closely with Product Management, Commercial teams, Risk, Compliance, and regional engineering leadership to translate payment capabilities into competitive business advantages. Ensure platform roadmap directly supports customer acquisition, retention, conversion improvements, and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • System Design and Architecture

    Expert-level proficiency in designing scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems. Deep understanding of microservices architecture, API design, database patterns, consistency models, and trade-offs in high-availability payment infrastructure.

  • Payment Systems Knowledge

    Strong understanding of payment processing flows, real-time gross settlement (RTGS), card networks (Visa/Mastercard), ACH/bank transfers, cross-border payment rails, FX settlement, and reconciliation mechanics.

  • Backend Technologies and Infrastructure

    Proficiency with modern backend programming languages, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), containerization (Kubernetes/Docker), and infrastructure-as-code practices. Experience with event-driven architectures and real-time data pipelines.

  • Observability and Operational Excellence

    Deep expertise in building observable systems with comprehensive logging, metrics, tracing, and monitoring. Experience implementing incident response frameworks, post-mortems, and runbook-driven operations for mission-critical systems.

Education

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field

    Formal foundation in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, or equivalent technical discipline. Advanced degrees not required but additional technical certifications in distributed systems or payment infrastructure are valued.

Experience

  • 10+ Years Software Engineering Experience

    Demonstrated career trajectory with deep technical expertise across full software development lifecycle, system design, and architectural patterns. Track record of building and shipping production systems at scale with clear business impact.

  • 5+ Years Engineering Leadership

    Proven experience in director or senior leadership roles managing Engineering Managers, engineering leads, or large technical teams. Track record of scaling high-performing organizations, developing talent pipelines, and building strong engineering cultures.

  • Experience in Fintech or Regulated Industries

    Deep exposure to financial services, payments, cryptocurrency, or similarly regulated industries where data correctness, transaction integrity, compliance, and security are non-negotiable. Understanding of payment networks, settlement mechanics, and regulatory frameworks is advantageous.

  • Distributed Systems at Scale

    Hands-on experience designing and operating large-scale distributed payment systems handling high transaction volumes, ensuring reliability, fault tolerance, and consistency across geographic regions and regulatory boundaries.

  • Fast-Paced High-Growth Environment

    Proven ability to operate effectively in high-velocity environments, making sound judgment calls with incomplete information, prioritizing relentlessly, and driving team accountability for execution and results.

Skills

Required

  • Technical Leadership and Architecture

    Ability to make sound architectural decisions that balance competing constraints: performance, scalability, reliability, compliance, and time-to-market. Comfort with technical depth across payment infrastructure components.

  • People Leadership and Team Development

    Demonstrated ability to recruit, develop, and retain top engineering talent. Skills in coaching, delegation, performance management, and creating psychological safety. Experience building diverse, inclusive teams.

  • Product Thinking and Business Acumen

    Ability to connect engineering decisions to business outcomes: customer acquisition, retention, conversion, and revenue growth. Comfort translating customer needs into technical roadmap priorities.

  • Execution and Delivery Ownership

    Track record of taking end-to-end ownership of complex projects from conception through delivery. Ability to set clear goals, manage dependencies, remove blockers, and drive accountability across teams.

  • Navigating Complexity and Ambiguity

    Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, high-growth environments with incomplete information. Strong judgment in making trade-offs between speed and rigor, short-term wins and long-term investments.

Preferred

  • Fintech or Payments Domain Expertise

    Nice to have

    Direct experience building or operating payments infrastructure, payment gateways, or financial platforms. Familiarity with payment regulatory frameworks (PCI-DSS, PSD2, regulatory requirements across markets).

  • Global Scale Operations

    Nice to have

    Experience managing systems and teams across multiple geographic regions, time zones, and regulatory jurisdictions. Understanding of localization requirements for payment systems.

  • AI and Automation

    Nice to have

    Experience leveraging AI and machine learning for fraud detection, anomaly detection, optimization, or developer productivity. Comfort incorporating AI tools into engineering workflows and decision-making.

  • Open Source Community Involvement

    Nice to have

    Active contributions to open source projects, speaking at technical conferences, or thought leadership in distributed systems, payment infrastructure, or fintech. Recognition within the engineering community.

Tech stack

Languages

GoPythonJavaTypeScript/JavaScript

Frameworks

gRPCREST/OpenAPIEvent Streaming FrameworksSpring Boot

Databases

PostgreSQLNoSQL Databases (MongoDB/DynamoDB)RedisData Warehouses (Snowflake/BigQuery)

Tools

KubernetesTerraform/IaCDatadog/New Relic/PrometheusGitHub/GitLabJira/Linear

Other

Payment Processing Standards (ISO 20022/ISO 8583)Cryptography and Security PracticesIncident Response and Chaos Engineering

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 237,000 – 407,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity Compensation

    Significant stock options package aligned with company valuation, reflecting Airwallex's US$11 billion status. Options typically vest over 4 years with a 1-year cliff, providing long-term upside participation.

  • Comprehensive Health Insurance

    Medical, dental, and vision coverage for director-level employees and their families. Coverage varies by location but typically includes preventive care, mental health, and wellness programs.

  • Flexible Work Arrangements

    Hybrid work model with flexibility across three hub locations: Singapore, United Kingdom, and San Francisco. Remote-friendly culture supporting work-life balance for global directors.

  • Professional Development Budget

    Annual allocation for training, certifications, conference attendance, and executive coaching. Support for leadership development programs and technology certifications.

  • Generous Paid Time Off

    Competitive PTO policy with flexible vacation allocation. Additional mental health days and sabbatical opportunities for long-tenured staff.

  • Parental and Caregiving Support

    Paid parental leave, family planning support, and flexible work arrangements for caregiving responsibilities. Childcare and eldercare benefits available by location.

  • Retirement and Financial Benefits

    Employer-matched 401(k) in US locations, pension contributions in UK, and superannuation matching in Australia. Financial planning services for executives.

  • Relocation Assistance

    Comprehensive relocation package for candidates relocating to Singapore, London, or San Francisco. Includes housing support, visa sponsorship, and integration services.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Phone Screen

    30-minute conversation with Airwallex recruiter to discuss background, engineering philosophy, leadership experience, and mutual fit. Covers career trajectory and familiarity with payment systems and fintech.

  2. 02

    Technical Leadership Interview

    60-minute session with current Engineering Director or VP Engineering. Deep dive into architectural decisions, scaling challenges faced, technical leadership approach, and specific payment systems experience. Expect detailed system design discussions.

  3. 03

    People Leadership Assessment

    60-minute conversation with Head of People or organizational development lead. Discussion of team building philosophy, handling difficult personnel decisions, developing talent, and creating inclusive engineering cultures.

  4. 04

    Product and Business Acumen

    45-minute interview with Head of Product or Chief Commercial Officer. Exploration of how candidates connect technical decisions to business outcomes, product prioritization philosophy, and cross-functional partnership approach.

  5. 05

    Executive Round with Leadership

    90-minute panel or sequential interviews with CTO/VP Engineering, CFO or VP Finance, and potentially CEO. Holistic assessment of vision for payments platform, operational excellence mindset, and cultural fit with Airwallex leadership principles.

  6. 06

    Take-Home Strategic Project

    Optional strategic assessment where candidates present a solution for a realistic payments platform challenge. Evaluated on technical depth, business thinking, and ability to communicate complex ideas clearly.

  7. 07

    Reference Checks

    Detailed reference conversations with former direct reports, peers, and managers who can speak to technical leadership, team development, and execution in complex environments.

Full posting

Original listing.

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 250,000 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 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 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

Payments Platform at Airwallex is where global payment complexity is turned into infrastructure that helps businesses accept and move money more simply.

We build the platform behind how payments are accepted and processed across markets, helping businesses embed payments into their workflows, improve conversion, and operate with less friction. The work supports a core growth lever for Airwallex: payment experiences that are reliable, scalable, and easy to use.

What makes this team distinct is the challenge at the heart of it: balancing performance, reliability, local complexity, and commercial outcomes in the same system. Small improvements can materially affect customer experience and conversion, while failures are immediately visible.

You'll do well here if you enjoy product infrastructure with clear business impact. This team suits engineers who are thoughtful, pragmatic, and motivated by making complex problems feel simple to customers.

If you want to build the platform that makes payments work seamlessly for businesses around the world, this is the team at the center of that mission.

What you’ll do

As an Engineering Director, you will the teams that are responsible for building and operating critical components of the Payments Platform. This role combines people leadership, technical direction, and delivery ownership.

This role can be based in Singapore, United Kingdom and San Francisco, United States.

Responsibilities:

  • Define and execute the Payments Platform vision: Own the end-to-end strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Airwallex's Payments Platform — covering payment processing, routing, settlement, reconciliation, and partner integrations — ensuring it scales reliably across global markets.

  • Lead and grow a world-class engineering organization: Manage, coach, and develop Engineering Managers and senior technical talent across multiple squads, building a culture of ownership, technical excellence, and continuous improvement while driving sustainable hiring and team growth.

  • Drive technical architecture and platform excellence: Provide architectural direction for high-volume, mission-critical payment systems, setting high standards for reliability, observability, security, scalability, and developer productivity across the platform.

  • Deliver with speed and operational rigor: Set clear OKRs, manage execution across multiple concurrent initiatives, and hold teams accountable for high-quality outcomes — balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform investments and operational health.

  • Collaborate cross-functionally to align technology with business outcomes: Partner closely with Product, Commercial, Risk, Compliance, and regional engineering leaders to ensure platform capabilities directly support Airwallex's growth, customer experience, and regulatory requirements.

Who you are

We are looking for engineering leaders with deep technical expertise and a strong track record of impact.

Minimum qualifications:

  • 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles.

  • Demonstrated experience in people management, including managing Engineering Managers or Engineering Leads, with a track record of building and scaling high-performing teams.

  • Strong product thinking and the ability to partner closely with Product Management to define roadmaps, prioritize delivery, and drive business outcomes.

  • Deep technical fluency in software architecture and system design, with experience guiding architectural decisions for large-scale, complex distributed systems.

  • Proven ability to operate in fast-paced, high-growth environments where incremental improvement, ownership, and speed of execution are valued.

  • Experience in fintech, financial services, payments, or a similarly regulated industry where correctness and data integrity are critical.

 

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.

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