# Engineering Director, Payments Platform **Company:** [Airwallex](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/airwallex) Engineering Director overseeing Airwallex's Payments Platform — a critical infrastructure serving 250,000+ businesses globally. This role combines technical leadership, team development, and strategic delivery, requiring expertise in high-volume payment systems, distributed architecture, and fintech complexity across regulated markets in Singapore, UK, and US locations. **Role:** Engineering Manager **Seniority:** Director **Locations:** SG - Singapore **Salary:** 180000–320000 USD [Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex/17fa30b4-c813-461a-acff-f2f2e23c31d6) Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/airwallex/engineering-director-payments-platform --- ## Responsibilities - Define and Execute Payments Platform Vision: Own the end-to-end strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Airwallex's Payments Platform, encompassing payment processing, routing, settlement, reconciliation, and partner integrations. Ensure the platform scales reliably across global markets while supporting the company's core growth initiatives and maintaining competitive advantage in the fintech space. - Lead and Develop Engineering Organization: Manage, coach, and develop multiple Engineering Managers and senior technical talent across multiple squads. Build a culture centered on ownership, technical excellence, and continuous improvement. Drive sustainable team growth and succession planning while fostering psychological safety and empowering leaders to make autonomous decisions. - Drive Technical Architecture and Platform Excellence: Provide architectural direction for high-volume, mission-critical payment systems handling transactions at scale. Set and enforce standards for reliability, observability, security, and scalability. Improve developer productivity through thoughtful infrastructure decisions, reducing toil and enabling teams to focus on high-impact features. - Deliver with Speed and Operational Rigor: Define clear OKRs and execution frameworks for multiple concurrent initiatives. Hold teams accountable for high-quality outcomes through regular performance reviews and data-driven decision making. Balance short-term delivery velocity with long-term platform investments, ensuring systems remain maintainable and operationally healthy. - Collaborate Cross-Functionally on Business Outcomes: Partner closely with Product, Commercial, Risk, Compliance, and regional engineering leaders to align platform capabilities with business growth objectives, regulatory requirements, and customer experience improvements. Communicate technical constraints and opportunities in business terms to non-technical stakeholders. ## Requirements ### education - {"name":"Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or equivalent practical software engineering experience. Strong foundational knowledge in algorithms, data structures, and system design principles."} ### technical - {"name":"Distributed Systems Architecture","description":"Deep expertise in designing and operating large-scale, distributed payment systems handling high transaction volumes with stringent reliability requirements. Experience with patterns such as eventual consistency, saga transactions, and failover mechanisms essential for payment infrastructure."} - {"name":"Fintech and Payments Domain Knowledge","description":"Comprehensive understanding of payment processing workflows, settlement mechanisms, regulatory compliance frameworks, and anti-fraud systems. Familiarity with concepts like payment routing optimization, liquidity management, and cross-border transaction settlement across multiple markets and currencies."} - {"name":"Software Architecture and System Design","description":"Proven ability to architect complex systems balancing performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability. Experience with microservices architectures, event-driven systems, and making strategic technology choices that reduce technical debt while supporting business growth."} - {"name":"Observability and Production Excellence","description":"Strong background in building observable systems with comprehensive logging, monitoring, tracing, and alerting. Experience designing on-call practices, SLOs, and incident response frameworks to maintain high-availability systems in production environments."} ### experience - {"name":"Software Engineering Leadership","description":"Minimum 10+ years of software engineering experience with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles. Proven track record of managing Engineering Managers or Engineering Leads, not just individual contributors, with demonstrated success in team scaling and organizational growth."} - {"name":"High-Growth Fintech or Financial Services","description":"Experience in fintech, financial services, payments, or similarly regulated industries where correctness, data integrity, and compliance are non-negotiable. Demonstrated ability to navigate regulatory complexity while maintaining development velocity and innovation pace."} - {"name":"Complex Product Development","description":"Track record of defining and executing ambitious technical roadmaps that directly impact business outcomes. Experience bridging engineering and product organizations, translating market opportunities into technical strategies, and shipping products that drive measurable business value."} - {"name":"Fast-Paced, High-Growth Environments","description":"Proven ability to thrive in rapidly evolving environments requiring operational excellence, pragmatic decision-making, and adaptability. Comfort with ambiguity, strong bias toward action, and demonstrated success at moving fast without sacrificing quality or team wellbeing."} ## Skills ### required - {"name":"Engineering Team Leadership","description":"People management capability including hiring, development, performance management, and retention of high-performing engineering teams. Experience coaching leaders and building succession pipelines."} - {"name":"Strategic Product Thinking","description":"Ability to connect technical roadmaps to business outcomes, define OKRs, and partner with product and commercial teams to prioritize high-impact initiatives."} - {"name":"Distributed System Design","description":"Expertise in designing and operating systems that handle massive scale, including payment processing, settlement, reconciliation, and integration with external partners."} - {"name":"Cross-Functional Collaboration","description":"Strong ability to partner with Product, Risk, Compliance, Commercial, and other stakeholders to align technology with business requirements and regulatory constraints."} - {"name":"Operational Excellence","description":"Demonstrated ability to establish high standards for reliability, security, and scalability, including building observability practices and on-call cultures that enable teams to operate systems confidently."} ### preferred - {"name":"Payment Systems Experience","description":"Direct experience building or operating payment gateways, payment processors, or financial platforms that handle real-money transactions across global markets."} - {"name":"Regulatory and Compliance Navigation","description":"Experience working in highly regulated environments such as fintech, banking, or similar, with understanding of compliance requirements, audit processes, and risk management frameworks."} - {"name":"AI and Automation Integration","description":"Experience leveraging AI and modern tools to improve engineering productivity, accelerate problem-solving, and enhance decision-making across technical teams."} - {"name":"Multi-Regional or Multi-Market Operations","description":"Background managing technical teams or platforms operating across multiple geographies, currencies, or regulatory jurisdictions, handling localization complexity and regional requirements."} - {"name":"Founder or Startup Experience","description":"Demonstrated founder-like energy with experience building products or companies from zero-to-one, balancing long-term vision with short-term execution discipline."} ## Tech stack ### tools - {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Container orchestration platform enabling scalable, resilient deployment of payment microservices across global regions with automatic recovery and rolling updates."} - {"name":"Docker","description":"Containerization technology for packaging payment services consistently across development, testing, and production environments, enabling reproducible deployments."} - {"name":"Datadog / Prometheus","description":"Observability and monitoring platforms essential for tracking payment system health, transaction volumes, latency distributions, and alerting on anomalies."} - {"name":"Jenkins / GitHub Actions","description":"CI/CD platforms automating testing, security scanning, and deployment of payment platform changes, enabling safe, rapid iteration with comprehensive audit trails."} - {"name":"Terraform","description":"Infrastructure-as-code tool for managing cloud infrastructure at scale, enabling reproducible deployments across multiple regions and environments."} ### others - {"name":"Payment Gateway Integration","description":"Experience integrating with external payment networks, acquiring partners, and third-party processors to route transactions efficiently across global markets."} - {"name":"Distributed Transaction Patterns","description":"Deep understanding of saga transactions, two-phase commit protocols, idempotency patterns, and compensating transactions essential for reliable payment processing."} - {"name":"Security and Encryption Standards","description":"Expertise in PCI-DSS compliance, end-to-end encryption, tokenization, secure key management, and threat modeling for payment systems handling sensitive financial data."} - {"name":"Reconciliation and Settlement Systems","description":"Experience building reconciliation engines that match and settle transactions across multiple payment corridors, currencies, and financial institutions with zero tolerance for discrepancies."} - {"name":"Regulatory Technology Frameworks","description":"Understanding of compliance requirements across jurisdictions, know-your-customer (KYC) integration, anti-money laundering (AML) screening, and audit-ready transaction logging."} ### databases - {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Robust relational database for transactional payment data, offering ACID guarantees, advanced features like jsonb and partitioning essential for financial record-keeping."} - {"name":"MongoDB","description":"NoSQL document database used for storing flexible data models, logs, and operational metrics in payment platforms requiring high throughput and scalability."} - {"name":"Redis","description":"In-memory data store critical for high-performance caching, session management, rate limiting, and real-time data processing in payment workflows."} - {"name":"DynamoDB","description":"AWS managed database providing seamless scalability and multi-region replication capabilities for global payment platforms requiring automatic failover."} ### languages - {"name":"Java","description":"Enterprise-grade language commonly used in payment systems and financial infrastructure for its performance, stability, and ecosystem of battle-tested libraries."} - {"name":"Python","description":"Used across fintech for data analysis, scripting, backend services, and machine learning applications including fraud detection and reconciliation logic."} - {"name":"Go","description":"Increasingly popular in payment infrastructure for building performant, concurrent services with minimal resource overhead, ideal for high-throughput systems."} - {"name":"Kotlin","description":"Modern JVM language that enhances Java productivity and safety, used in contemporary fintech backends for improved developer experience and type safety."} ### frameworks - {"name":"Spring Boot","description":"Industry-standard framework for building Java-based microservices in fintech, providing robust dependency injection, transaction management, and security features."} - {"name":"gRPC","description":"High-performance RPC framework essential for inter-service communication in distributed payment systems, enabling efficient protocol buffer serialization and streaming."} - {"name":"Kafka / Event Streaming","description":"Critical for building event-driven payment architectures, ensuring reliable message ordering, exactly-once processing semantics, and distributed transaction coordination."} ## Benefits ### benefits - {"name":"Competitive Equity Compensation","description":"Meaningful stock options reflecting your seniority level and impact on Airwallex's valuation at US$11 billion, providing significant upside potential aligned with company growth."} - {"name":"Comprehensive Health and Wellness","description":"Medical, dental, and vision coverage with competitive company contributions. Wellness programs, mental health support, and fitness benefits to support holistic wellbeing."} - {"name":"Flexible Work Arrangements","description":"Work from any of Airwallex's 27 global offices or remote options depending on role and team structure. Support for distributed teams across time zones with flexible scheduling."} - {"name":"Professional Development and Learning","description":"Annual learning budget, access to executive coaching, conference attendance, and opportunities to develop leadership skills alongside high-caliber peers at a scaling fintech company."} - {"name":"Generous Time Off and Sabbatical","description":"Competitive paid time off, parental leave, and sabbatical programs supporting long-term wellbeing and retention of exceptional talent."} - {"name":"Global Mobility Support","description":"Relocation assistance, visa sponsorship, and international assignment support for top talent joining from outside the Singapore, UK, or US office locations."} - {"name":"Impact-Driven Culture","description":"Work on genuinely ambitious technical challenges serving 250,000+ businesses globally. Direct visibility to business impact, customer outcomes, and contribution to fintech innovation."} ## Compensation - **max:** 320000 - **min:** 180000 - **currency:** USD - **stockOptions:** true ## Interview process ### steps - {"name":"Initial Screening Call","description":"30-minute conversation with Talent Acquisition partner to discuss your background, leadership experience, fintech domain knowledge, and alignment with Airwallex's mission and operating principles."} - {"name":"Hiring Manager Deep Dive","description":"60-minute technical and leadership conversation with the direct VP or Chief Technology Officer. Discussion of payment platform architecture, team scaling experiences, strategic thinking, and your approach to balancing speed with technical rigor."} - {"name":"Cross-Functional Panel Interviews","description":"Multiple 45-minute conversations with key stakeholders including Product leadership, Finance/Business Operations, and peer engineering leaders. Assess collaboration skills, product thinking, and understanding of business impact."} - {"name":"System Design and Leadership Case Study","description":"Structured evaluation of your ability to architect complex payment systems, design organizational structures, and navigate challenging tradeoffs between performance, compliance, and cost. May include real scenarios from Airwallex's platform."} - {"name":"Executive Leadership Conversation","description":"Final conversation with senior leadership (VP Engineering or C-suite) to discuss long-term vision, cultural fit, and expectations around impact and growth within the organization."} ## Full description ## **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](https://www.airwallex.com/us/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_](http://airwallex.com) _email address. Please apply only through_ [_careers.airwallex.com_](http://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.