Engineering Lead, GTPN Platform (Seoul)
Engineering Manager · Lead · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
Lead the engineering team responsible for building and operating critical platform capabilities that power Airwallex's global treasury and payment products at scale. This role combines technical leadership, people management, and delivery ownership, requiring deep system architecture expertise with 8+ years of software engineering experience. You'll drive platform strategy, mentor high-performing engineers, and partner with product teams to deliver scalable, reliable solutions that support global financial infrastructure.
Responsibilities
- Lead Platform Architecture and Operations: Architect, develop, and operate GTPN platform systems that serve as the technical foundation for Airwallex's global treasury and payment products. Make critical technical decisions that balance scalability, reliability, and performance across high-traffic distributed systems handling millions of transactions globally.
- Build and Develop High-Performing Teams: Recruit, mentor, and develop engineers on your team, fostering a culture of technical excellence and ownership. Conduct performance reviews, create individual development plans, and establish clear career growth paths while maintaining team health and psychological safety.
- Drive Technical Excellence and Quality Standards: Maintain rigorous engineering standards for code quality, system reliability, and operational excellence. Conduct technical reviews, establish best practices for infrastructure management, and drive continuous improvement across platform capabilities and service reliability.
- Contribute to Critical Implementation Work: Remain hands-on with architecture and technical problem-solving, contributing directly to code reviews and implementing solutions for high-priority challenges. Balance leadership responsibilities with technical contributions to complex system design decisions.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration and Strategy: Partner closely with product management, engineering stakeholders, and business teams to define platform strategy, prioritize capabilities, and align technical roadmaps with customer and business objectives. Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
- Data-Driven Performance Optimization: Analyze system metrics, operational data, and team performance indicators to identify optimization opportunities. Use insights to improve platform performance, reliability, team effectiveness, and developer productivity through evidence-based decision making.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Advanced System Architecture Design
Demonstrated expertise designing scalable, highly available distributed systems that handle massive transaction volumes. Proficiency in modern architectural patterns including microservices, event-driven architectures, and API design for financial systems operating at global scale.
Backend Software Engineering Mastery
Strong production-level experience with modern backend technologies and programming languages. Ability to make informed technology choices for platform systems and guide teams through complex technical implementations in cloud-native environments.
Financial Systems and Payments Domain Knowledge
Understanding of payment processing, treasury management, and financial transaction systems. Familiarity with payment rails, settlement processes, compliance requirements, and the technical challenges of building reliable financial infrastructure at scale.
Cloud Infrastructure and DevOps
Expertise with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), Kubernetes orchestration, containerization, infrastructure-as-code, and modern DevOps practices. Strong understanding of database design, caching strategies, and operational excellence in cloud-native architectures.
Leadership and Technical Mentorship
Proven ability to mentor junior and mid-level engineers, conduct effective code reviews, and establish technical standards. Experience leading architecture discussions and making strategic technical decisions with input from distributed teams across multiple time zones.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent field with strong foundational computer science knowledge. This provides the theoretical background for architecting complex distributed systems.
Experience
8+ Years Software Engineering Experience
Minimum 8 years building production software systems at scale in modern engineering environments. This includes hands-on backend development, system design, and progressive leadership roles demonstrating technical depth and execution capability.
3+ Years Team Leadership Experience
Demonstrated success leading engineering teams of 5+ members through multiple product cycles. Experience hiring, developing talent, managing performance, and creating high-performing team cultures with ownership and accountability.
Platform or Infrastructure Leadership
Proven track record building platform teams or infrastructure systems that enabled product teams to ship faster and operate more reliably. Experience defining platform strategy, managing technical debt, and making architectural decisions that served multiple downstream teams.
Cross-Functional Execution at Scale
Success collaborating effectively with product management, design, data science, and business teams to deliver complex initiatives. Experience balancing technical rigor with business priorities and shipping features that demonstrated measurable customer or business impact.
Skills
Required
System Design and Architecture
Expert-level ability to design scalable distributed systems, make architectural trade-offs, and guide teams through complex technical decisions that will impact system reliability and performance at scale.
Team Leadership and Mentorship
Proven ability to recruit, develop, and retain high-performing engineering talent. Experience with performance management, career development, technical coaching, and creating psychological safety within teams.
Execution and Delivery
Track record of shipping complex technical projects on time with high quality. Ability to break down ambitious goals into executable work, manage dependencies, and drive accountability across distributed teams.
Technical Communication
Ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, write clear technical documentation, and lead architecture review discussions. Skill in communicating technical constraints and trade-offs to product and business teams.
Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking
Strong analytical skills to debug complex system issues, evaluate multiple technical approaches, and make decisions using first principles thinking. Ability to dive deep into technical problems while maintaining strategic perspective.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Proficiency interpreting metrics, operational dashboards, and performance data to identify optimization opportunities. Ability to use observability tools, logging systems, and APM platforms to drive continuous improvement.
Preferred
Financial Technology or Payments Industry Experience
Nice to havePrior experience building or operating financial technology systems, payment platforms, or fintech infrastructure. Familiarity with payment processing compliance, settlement mechanics, or cross-border payment challenges is highly valuable.
Experience with High-Scale Transaction Systems
Nice to haveBackground operating systems processing millions of transactions daily with strict reliability and latency requirements. Experience optimizing for throughput, consistency, and fault tolerance in mission-critical infrastructure.
Open Source Contribution or Community Leadership
Nice to haveContributions to open source projects, speaking at technical conferences, or leading engineering communities. Evidence of thought leadership in system design, backend engineering, or platform architecture.
Multi-Region or Global Infrastructure Experience
Nice to haveExperience designing systems that operate across multiple geographic regions, handle currency conversions, or manage compliance requirements across different jurisdictions. Understanding of latency, consistency, and regulatory challenges in global systems.
Kubernetes and Container Orchestration Expertise
Nice to haveDeep hands-on experience with Kubernetes, containerization strategies, and cloud-native architectures. Understanding of service mesh technologies, deployment patterns, and infrastructure automation at scale.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 120,000 – 180,000
Equity·Stock options
Benefits
Competitive Equity Compensation
Participate in Airwallex's success as an early-stage company valued at USD 8 billion. Stock options provide meaningful long-term upside aligned with company growth and your contributions to platform success.
Global Career Growth Opportunities
Access to learning and development resources across Airwallex's 26 offices worldwide. Opportunities to grow your leadership skills, mentor engineers globally, and progress to senior leadership roles within a hyper-growth fintech company.
Health and Wellness Programs
Comprehensive health insurance coverage, wellness stipends, and mental health support. Access to fitness programs and preventive healthcare services designed for high-performing technical teams.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Work arrangement flexibility suited to the Seoul location with modern remote work capabilities. Balance between collaborative team interactions and focused individual contribution time.
Professional Development Budget
Annual learning and development budget for courses, certifications, conference attendance, and technical training. Support for engineering leadership development and advancing your expertise in distributed systems.
Mission-Driven Impact
Work on global-scale financial infrastructure serving over 200,000 businesses worldwide. Your technical decisions directly impact payment reliability for companies like Brex, Rippling, Navan, and Qantas.
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 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 2,200 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 GTPN Platform engineering team at Airwallex builds and operates the core platform capabilities that power global treasury and payment products at scale. The team owns shared backend systems, services, and technical foundations that enable product teams to build, launch, and operate reliable, scalable, and high-performing solutions. The team focuses on platform architecture, developer enablement, system reliability, and continuous optimization to support product innovation and operational excellence.
What you’ll do
As an Engineering Lead, GTPN Platform, this role leads engineering team responsible for building and operating critical platform capabilities that support Airwallex’s financial products. The role combines people leadership, technical direction, and delivery ownership.
This role is accountable for team health, execution quality, and long-term technical outcomes. It requires close partnership with engineering, product, and cross-functional stakeholders to shape platform strategy, drive prioritization, and deliver scalable solutions aligned with customer and business needs.
This role is based in Seoul.
Responsibilities:
Lead the architecture, development, and operation of GTPN platform systems.
Manage and develop a high-performing engineering team.
Drive technical design and key architectural decisions for scalable and reliable services.
Contribute to code reviews, technical problem-solving, and critical implementation work where needed.
Maintain high standards for engineering quality, reliability, and operational excellence.
Partner with product and engineering stakeholders to deliver platform capabilities aligned with business needs.
Use data and system insights to improve performance, reliability, and team effectiveness.
Who you are
We are looking for engineering manager with deep technical expertise and a strong track record of impact as a tech lead.
Minimum qualifications:
Proven experience leading high-performing engineering teams.
Strong software engineering and system architecture background, with 8+ years of experience in modern engineering environments.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
Strong technical judgment and ability to guide teams building scalable, reliable systems.
Effective people leader with experience coaching and developing engineers.
Strong cross-functional collaboration and execution skills.
Data-driven, customer-aware, and quality-focused.
High ownership, sound prioritization, and adaptability in fast-paced environments.
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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