# Engineering Lead, Growth **Company:** [Airwallex](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/airwallex) Lead a high-impact engineering team building AI-native growth platforms at Airwallex, a regulated fintech infrastructure company serving 675,000+ businesses globally. This Engineering Lead role combines technical architecture and team leadership to design scalable systems for customer acquisition, activation, and expansion across product, sales, and marketing functions. You'll drive measurable business outcomes through experimentation, personalization, and growth automation while establishing engineering excellence standards across distributed teams. **Role:** Engineering Manager **Seniority:** Lead **Locations:** US - San Francisco **Salary:** 15000–22000 USD [Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex/9ca134f8-b971-43fe-b567-9aa454c43a74) Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/airwallex/engineering-lead-growth-9ca134f8 --- ## Responsibilities - Lead Engineering Execution: Own delivery of complex Growth engineering initiatives from technical planning and architecture through implementation, launch, and continuous improvement. Direct cross-functional projects involving distributed teams and ensure on-time, high-quality execution of growth platform deliverables. - Drive Technical Direction and Architecture: Guide the design and development of scalable backend services, frontend applications, and event-driven systems that enable experimentation and growth automation. Make sound architectural decisions balancing technical depth with business velocity, particularly for AI-native platform capabilities and agentic workflows. - Build and Develop High-Performing Teams: Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing engineering team through technical mentorship, clear expectations, and fostering a culture of ownership and continuous improvement. Conduct regular one-on-ones, provide constructive feedback, and identify growth opportunities for team members at all levels. - Cross-Functional Partnership and Alignment: Partner closely with Product, Design, Data Science, Marketing, Sales, and Revenue Operations teams to translate ambiguous business problems into actionable technical roadmaps and solutions. Navigate competing priorities and build consensus across functional leaders to drive aligned execution. - Drive Measurable Business Outcomes: Leverage experimentation, customer insights, and data-driven analysis to prioritize high-impact growth opportunities. Establish metrics-driven development practices that directly connect engineering output to acquisition, activation, conversion, retention, and expansion objectives. - Establish Engineering Excellence Standards: Raise the engineering bar by establishing strong practices for system design, code quality, performance, reliability, security, observability, and operational excellence. Build scalable infrastructure and automation capabilities that improve team velocity and production reliability. ## Requirements ### education - {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Engineering","description":"Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field from an accredited institution. Equivalent demonstrable experience may be considered."} ### technical - {"name":"Scalable Backend System Design","description":"Demonstrated expertise designing, building, and operating production backend systems at scale using languages such as Python, Java, or Kotlin. Strong understanding of distributed systems principles, microservices architecture, and cloud-native infrastructure patterns."} - {"name":"Full-Stack Development Proficiency","description":"Strong technical capabilities across backend and frontend technologies including React or TypeScript. Ability to architect end-to-end solutions spanning APIs, databases, and user-facing applications."} - {"name":"Event-Driven and Data Pipeline Architectures","description":"Experience designing and implementing event-driven systems, real-time data pipelines, and asynchronous processing patterns. Familiarity with stream processing, message queues, and data orchestration concepts."} - {"name":"Cloud Infrastructure and DevOps","description":"Hands-on experience with AWS or GCP for infrastructure provisioning, containerization, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native deployment patterns. Understanding of infrastructure-as-code and operational automation."} - {"name":"AI and Machine Learning Integration","description":"Experience developing AI-powered applications, integrating LLMs, building agentic workflows, and orchestrating AI tools in production systems. Knowledge of evaluation frameworks and observability for ML-powered features."} ### experience - {"name":"8+ Years of Professional Software Engineering","description":"Minimum 8 years of professional software engineering experience building production systems at scale. Track record of progressing through individual contributor and leadership roles."} - {"name":"Technical Leadership of Complex Initiatives","description":"Proven experience leading engineering teams or owning complex technical initiatives. Demonstrated ability to take ownership of ambiguous problems, establish technical strategy, and drive execution to completion."} - {"name":"Growth Platform and Experimentation Systems","description":"Preferred experience building growth platforms, experimentation frameworks, customer segmentation engines, or product-led growth experiences. Understanding of A/B testing, feature flags, and growth metrics."} - {"name":"Cross-Functional Initiative Leadership","description":"Demonstrated success leading cross-functional engineering projects involving Product, Design, Data Science, Marketing, and Sales teams. Experience translating business requirements into technical specifications and managing stakeholder expectations."} - {"name":"Fintech or Regulated Environment Experience","description":"Preferred experience in high-growth fintech companies, global payments platforms, or regulated financial environments. Understanding of compliance, security, and operational requirements in regulated industries."} ## Skills ### required - {"name":"Technical Leadership","description":"Ability to make sound architectural decisions, manage technical tradeoffs, guide team technical direction, and maintain hands-on technical involvement while leading at scale."} - {"name":"Engineering Team Management","description":"Proven capability to recruit, develop, and retain high-performing engineering teams. Strong mentoring, delegation, and feedback skills with ability to foster ownership and accountability culture."} - {"name":"Product and Business Judgment","description":"Strong ownership mentality with ability to balance engineering quality, delivery velocity, and business impact. Data-driven decision making and ability to prioritize high-impact opportunities."} - {"name":"Cross-Functional Collaboration","description":"Excellent ability to partner with Product, Design, Data Science, Marketing, and Sales teams. Strong communication skills and capacity to influence stakeholders without direct authority."} - {"name":"Execution in Ambiguity","description":"Comfortable working through ill-defined problems, bringing structure to complexity, making thoughtful decisions with incomplete information, and adapting approach based on learning."} - {"name":"Distributed Team Leadership","description":"Experience leading and collaborating across distributed teams spanning multiple time zones and geographies, particularly across APAC, EMEA, and North America regions."} ### preferred - {"name":"Experimentation and Growth Analytics","description":"Familiarity with experimentation frameworks, statistical testing methodologies, and interpreting growth metrics to drive product decisions."} - {"name":"AI/ML Product Development","description":"Experience building AI-native features, understanding LLM capabilities and limitations, and shipping ML-powered user experiences in production."} - {"name":"Observability and Operational Excellence","description":"Strong practices in application instrumentation, logging, monitoring, and incident response. Building reliability culture and establishing SLOs/SLAs."} - {"name":"B2B SaaS Growth Models","description":"Understanding of land-and-expand strategies, customer segmentation, lifecycle management, and metrics like ARR, NRR, and LTV that drive B2B growth decisions."} - {"name":"Process Improvement and Scaling","description":"Track record of establishing engineering processes, improving delivery predictability, and scaling team execution in high-growth, fast-moving environments."} ## Tech stack ### tools - {"name":"AWS/GCP","description":"Cloud infrastructure platforms for scalable compute, storage, and managed services supporting multi-region deployment and high availability."} - {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Container orchestration for deploying and scaling microservices across distributed infrastructure with automated reliability and resource management."} - {"name":"Apache Kafka","description":"Distributed streaming platform enabling real-time event processing, data pipelines, and asynchronous communication between systems."} - {"name":"LLM Platforms","description":"Integration with language model APIs and frameworks for building AI-powered features, agentic workflows, and intelligent decision systems."} - {"name":"Datadog/Observability Tools","description":"Comprehensive monitoring, logging, and tracing platforms for production observability, performance optimization, and incident response."} ### others - {"name":"A/B Testing and Feature Flag Platforms","description":"Tools like LaunchDarkly for managing experimentation, feature rollouts, and supporting data-driven growth decisions at scale."} - {"name":"GraphQL","description":"Query language and runtime for flexible API design, enabling frontend applications to fetch precisely the data needed for growth experiences."} - {"name":"Event-Driven Architecture Patterns","description":"Design patterns for building loosely coupled systems using events, enabling real-time personalization and autonomous growth workflows."} - {"name":"CI/CD Pipelines","description":"Automated build, test, and deployment systems enabling fast iteration while maintaining reliability standards in regulated financial systems."} ### databases - {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Relational database supporting transactional consistency and complex queries for growth platform data and customer analytics."} - {"name":"Redis","description":"In-memory caching and real-time data store for low-latency feature flags, session management, and personalization in growth systems."} - {"name":"Elasticsearch","description":"Search and analytics engine used for customer segmentation, real-time insights, and building queryable customer data platforms."} ### languages - {"name":"Python","description":"Primary backend language used for building scalable services and automation at Airwallex, with strong ecosystem for data processing and AI integration."} - {"name":"Java/Kotlin","description":"Enterprise-grade backend language supporting high-performance, distributed systems and microservices architectures in regulated financial environments."} - {"name":"TypeScript","description":"Strong typing for frontend and full-stack development, enabling maintainability and developer productivity across growth platform applications."} ### frameworks - {"name":"React","description":"Modern frontend framework for building interactive, component-based user interfaces for growth platforms and experimentation systems."} - {"name":"FastAPI/Flask","description":"Python web frameworks enabling rapid development of REST APIs and backend services for growth automation and data processing pipelines."} - {"name":"Spring Boot","description":"Enterprise Java framework for building scalable microservices and handling complex financial transaction logic in regulated environments."} ## Benefits ### benefits - {"name":"Competitive Equity and Stock Options","description":"Meaningful equity grants providing ownership stake in Airwallex as a high-growth fintech infrastructure company with significant market opportunity and scale."} - {"name":"Comprehensive Health Insurance","description":"Medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family, with company contributing majority of premiums across all plan options."} - {"name":"Retirement Planning","description":"401(k) plan with company match, supporting long-term financial security and wealth building aligned with your career growth."} - {"name":"Flexible Work Arrangements","description":"For US-based positions, work from San Francisco office three days per week with flexibility for remote work, balancing in-person collaboration with work-life flexibility."} - {"name":"Professional Development and Learning","description":"Investment in engineering conference attendance, technical training, leadership development, and learning opportunities to grow technical and leadership capabilities."} - {"name":"Generous Paid Time Off","description":"Comprehensive PTO policy supporting work-life balance, mental health, and ability to disconnect and recharge throughout the year."} - {"name":"Parental Leave Benefits","description":"Generous parental leave for both birthing and non-birthing parents, supporting family planning and life transitions."} - {"name":"Global Benefits and Mobility","description":"Relocation support for candidates moving to co-headquarters locations in San Francisco or Singapore, with assistance for visa sponsorship and international employee benefits."} ## Compensation - **max:** 240000 - **min:** 180000 - **currency:** USD - **stockOptions:** true ## Interview process ### steps - {"name":"Initial Screening Call","description":"Introductory conversation with Airwallex Talent team to discuss background, career progression, motivation for the role, and alignment with team and company culture. Discussion of growth engineering challenges and Airwallex's approach to building AI-native platforms."} - {"name":"Technical Leadership Assessment","description":"Conversation with Engineering Lead or Engineering Manager to evaluate technical depth, system design capabilities, and track record leading engineering initiatives. May include discussion of past architectural decisions, scaling challenges, and technical tradeoffs managed."} - {"name":"Product and Growth Acumen Discussion","description":"Interview with Growth Product or Head of Growth to assess product judgment, understanding of growth metrics and experimentation, and ability to translate business objectives into technical roadmaps and measurable outcomes."} - {"name":"Team Leadership and Culture Fit","description":"Conversation with Engineering or People leader focused on leadership philosophy, team building and development experience, handling of ambiguity, and values alignment with Airwallex's operating principles around ownership and impact."} - {"name":"Executive Alignment Discussion","description":"Potential conversation with Senior Engineering or Executive leadership to discuss strategic vision, cross-functional collaboration style, ability to lead through ambiguity, and long-term growth potential within the organization."} - {"name":"Reference Checks","description":"Professional references will be contacted to verify technical leadership capabilities, team development track record, and ability to drive measurable business outcomes in complex, fast-moving environments."} ## Full description ## **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 2,300 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. ## **How you'll make impact** Growth Engineering at Airwallex is building an AI-native platform that powers customer acquisition, activation, conversion, retention, and expansion. We're developing scalable infrastructure, intelligent decision systems, and automation capabilities that connect product, sales, and marketing to drive measurable business outcomes. As an Engineering Lead, you'll lead a team of engineers to design, build, and scale the platforms and experiences that power Growth at Airwallex. You'll combine technical leadership, hands-on problem-solving, and strong execution to turn ambitious growth opportunities into reliable products and measurable business impact. * **Lead engineering execution**, owning the delivery of complex Growth initiatives from technical planning and architecture through implementation, launch, and continuous improvement. * **Drive technical direction**, guiding the design of scalable backend services, frontend applications, event-driven systems, and AI-native platform capabilities that enable experimentation, personalization, and growth automation. * **Build and develop a high-performing engineering team**, providing technical mentorship, coaching, clear expectations, and a culture of ownership, collaboration, and engineering excellence. * **Partner across functions**, working closely with Product, Design, Data Science, Marketing, Sales, and other engineering teams to translate ambiguous business problems into actionable roadmaps and technical solutions. * **Drive measurable business outcomes**, leveraging experimentation, customer insights, and data to prioritize high-impact opportunities, accelerate iteration, and improve growth performance. * **Raise the engineering bar**, establishing strong practices for system design, code quality, performance, reliability, security, observability, and operational excellence. US: You'll work from our San Francisco office three days a week. ## **What we're looking for** ### **Essentials** * **8+ years of professional software engineering experience**, including experience leading engineering teams or complex technical initiatives, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. * **Strong technical expertise in backend, frontend, or full-stack engineering**, with experience designing, building, and operating scalable production systems using technologies such as Python, Java/Kotlin, React, or TypeScript. * **Proven technical leadership and execution skills**, with a track record of leading complex engineering projects, making sound architectural decisions, managing technical tradeoffs, and delivering high-quality solutions. * **Demonstrated ability to lead and develop engineers**, through mentorship, technical guidance, effective delegation, and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. * **Strong ownership, product judgment, and cross-functional collaboration**, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, influence stakeholders, prioritize effectively, and translate business objectives into measurable engineering outcomes. ### **Preferred** * Experience building growth platforms, experimentation systems, customer segmentation engines, marketing automation, or product-led growth experiences. * Experience developing AI-powered applications or agentic workflows, including LLM integration, tool orchestration, evaluation, and production observability. * Experience with distributed systems, event-driven architectures, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure such as AWS or GCP. * Experience leading cross-functional engineering initiatives involving Product, Design, Data Science, Marketing, Sales, or Revenue Operations. * Experience establishing engineering processes, improving delivery predictability, and scaling team execution in fast-moving environments. * Experience in high-growth technology companies, fintech, payments, or regulated environments. ## **You'll thrive here if** * **You have high agency and ownership.** You proactively identify high-impact opportunities, take accountability for outcomes, and empower your team to deliver. * **You're a technical leader who builds.** You stay close to architecture and implementation, make sound technical decisions, and lead by example. * **You're pragmatic and outcome-oriented.** You balance engineering quality, delivery speed, and business impact, prioritizing what moves the needle. * **You're comfortable leading through ambiguity.** You bring structure to complex problems, set clear priorities, and make thoughtful decisions with incomplete information. * **You grow people and teams.** You coach engineers, delegate effectively, create clarity, and build a culture of ownership and continuous improvement. * **You communicate proactively and influence effectively.** You align stakeholders, surface risks early, navigate tradeoffs, and drive decisions across functions. * **You thrive in a global environment.** You're comfortable leading and collaborating across distributed teams in APAC, EMEA, and the US. ## **Learn more about your team** Growth at Airwallex is building a unified, AI-native growth system across product, sales, and marketing. Rather than applying AI to isolated tasks, we use customer context, machine learning, automation, and continuous learning to transform how Airwallex acquires, activates, converts, retains, and expands customers. You’ll build high-traffic platforms, experimentation frameworks, and intelligent decision systems that turn signals—such as company profile, product usage, lifecycle stage, behavior, and intent—into personalized journeys, next-best actions, and measurable incremental value. The work spans both human + AI and autonomous operating models: AI-native tools that increase the leverage of growth teams, alongside agentic workflows that can research opportunities, launch and optimize campaigns, orchestrate customer journeys, and measure outcomes within clear strategies and guardrails. The challenge is to combine consumer-technology speed with the precision, trust, and regulatory complexity of global B2B finance. If you enjoy owning ambiguous problems end to end, prototyping quickly, measuring real business impact, and using every outcome to improve the next decision, you’ll help define how an AI-native global financial platform grows. ## **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.