# Senior Site Reliability Engineer, Spend **Company:** [Airwallex](https://scaleengineer.com/companies/airwallex) Airwallex seeks a Senior Site Reliability Engineer to lead infrastructure design and delivery for their Spend team's financial operating platform, which serves over 675,000 businesses. This role combines deep cloud infrastructure expertise with fintech operations, requiring hands-on leadership in building scalable, highly available systems that support complex financial workflows across multiple regions and compliance requirements. You'll partner with product, DevOps, and security teams to drive reliability, observability, and incident response strategies while working in-office in Singapore. **Role:** Site Reliability Engineer **Seniority:** Senior **Locations:** SG - Singapore **Salary:** 150000–220000 SGD [Apply](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/airwallex/b3514b7b-67d3-4f48-b4ae-20e3ad49261c) Canonical: https://scaleengineer.com/jobs/airwallex/senior-site-reliability-engineer-spend-b3514b7b --- ## Responsibilities - Lead Infrastructure Design and Delivery: Own end-to-end infrastructure architecture and deployment for complex, high-risk initiatives including new service launches, global data centre migrations, and modernized data pipelines. Define technical strategies that balance scalability, reliability, and compliance requirements across multi-region deployments. - Drive Reliability and Observability Improvements: Enhance reliability, performance, and operational readiness across critical financial systems serving the Spend platform. Implement comprehensive observability strategies, establish service-level objectives (SLOs), and create detailed runbooks for production operations. - Lead Incident Response and DevOps Strategy: Own incident response processes, root cause analysis, and automation initiatives across critical systems. Establish team-level SLOs, define DevOps performance metrics, and drive continuous improvement in incident management practices and post-mortems. - Partner Across Development and Security Teams: Collaborate closely with product development, central DevOps, and security teams to build resilient, secure services that meet regulatory compliance standards. Provide technical guidance on reliability best practices and embed infrastructure knowledge within product teams. - Design for High Availability and Compliance: Architect cloud infrastructure that supports high availability, disaster recovery, and financial services compliance requirements. Ensure systems maintain service continuity across multiple availability zones, regions, and handle complex multi-entity, multi-currency financial operations. ## Requirements ### education - {"name":"Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field","description":"Formal qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or equivalent discipline. Foundation knowledge in computer systems, networking, and distributed systems concepts."} ### technical - {"name":"Cloud Platform Expertise","description":"Advanced proficiency with AWS or GCP, including compute, storage, networking, and managed services. Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code, cost optimization, and cloud architecture patterns for financial systems."} - {"name":"Kubernetes and Container Orchestration","description":"Deep expertise in Kubernetes deployment, scaling, networking, and troubleshooting. Experience managing containerized microservices in production environments at scale, including multi-cluster architectures."} - {"name":"Observability and Monitoring","description":"Expert knowledge of observability platforms, metrics, logs, and distributed tracing. Experience designing monitoring strategies, setting up alerting systems, and establishing SLOs/SLIs for complex production systems."} - {"name":"Incident Response and Automation","description":"Proven ability to lead incident response processes, conduct blameless post-mortems, and drive automation initiatives. Strong experience with on-call rotations, escalation procedures, and chaos engineering practices."} - {"name":"Production Systems and High Availability","description":"Extensive experience supporting mission-critical production systems with high availability and stringent uptime requirements. Knowledge of redundancy patterns, failover mechanisms, and disaster recovery strategies in financial environments."} ### experience - {"name":"5+ Years SRE or DevOps Engineering","description":"Minimum five years of hands-on experience in Site Reliability Engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure-focused engineering roles. Should include experience progressing from individual contributor to leadership responsibilities."} - {"name":"Leadership in Large-Scale Cross-Functional Projects","description":"Demonstrated ability to lead SRE strategy across large-scale initiatives involving multiple teams and complex dependencies. Experience driving infrastructure decisions that impact product roadmaps and business outcomes."} - {"name":"Fintech or Regulated Industry Background","description":"Experience working in financial technology, banking, or other heavily regulated industries where compliance, audit trails, and data security are paramount. Understanding of regulatory frameworks and their technical implementations is valuable."} - {"name":"Data Systems and Analytics Pipelines","description":"Familiarity with data streaming technologies, real-time analytics pipelines, or financial data systems. Knowledge of data consistency, pipeline orchestration, and handling high-volume transactional data in distributed environments."} ## Skills ### required - {"name":"AWS or GCP","description":"Advanced cloud platform engineering with hands-on experience deploying and managing production systems. Proficiency in infrastructure-as-code, compute services, networking, and cloud security."} - {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Production-grade expertise in container orchestration, cluster management, networking policies, and troubleshooting Kubernetes environments at scale."} - {"name":"Observability Platforms","description":"Experience with modern observability stacks including metrics collection, centralized logging, distributed tracing, and alerting systems. Familiarity with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Datadog, or New Relic."} - {"name":"Incident Response Leadership","description":"Ability to lead and coordinate incident response, perform post-mortem analysis, and drive corrective actions. Experience with incident management tools and on-call coordination."} - {"name":"SLO/SLI Definition and Management","description":"Expertise in establishing meaningful Service Level Objectives and Indicators that align infrastructure reliability with business requirements and user expectations."} - {"name":"Infrastructure-as-Code","description":"Proficiency with infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or Helm. Experience managing infrastructure through version control and CI/CD pipelines."} - {"name":"Scripting and Automation","description":"Strong programming skills in languages like Python, Go, or Bash for building automation, tooling, and operational scripts."} ### preferred - {"name":"Fintech Domain Knowledge","description":"Prior experience working in fintech, banking, or payment systems companies. Understanding of financial transaction processing, compliance requirements, and audit mechanisms."} - {"name":"Data Streaming Technologies","description":"Familiarity with Apache Kafka, AWS Kinesis, or similar data streaming platforms used in real-time analytics and financial data pipelines."} - {"name":"Multi-Region and Disaster Recovery","description":"Hands-on experience architecting and managing multi-region deployments, failover strategies, and business continuity planning in production environments."} - {"name":"Cost Optimization","description":"Demonstrated ability to analyze cloud spending, optimize infrastructure costs, and balance performance with financial efficiency."} - {"name":"Security and Compliance","description":"Working knowledge of security best practices, compliance frameworks relevant to financial services, and implementing security controls in cloud environments."} ## Tech stack ### tools - {"name":"AWS","description":"Primary cloud platform for infrastructure, services, and deployment used across Airwallex's global operations."} - {"name":"GCP","description":"Alternative or complementary cloud platform potentially used for specific workloads or regional deployments."} - {"name":"Prometheus and Grafana","description":"Observability stack for metrics collection, visualization, and alerting on infrastructure and application performance."} - {"name":"ELK Stack or Datadog","description":"Centralized logging and monitoring platforms for troubleshooting, auditing, and compliance tracking in financial systems."} - {"name":"PagerDuty or similar","description":"Incident management and on-call coordination platform for managing production incidents and escalations."} - {"name":"Git","description":"Version control system for infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, and collaborative development practices."} ### others - {"name":"CI/CD Pipelines","description":"Automated deployment workflows using tools like GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins for reliable infrastructure and application releases."} - {"name":"Service Mesh","description":"Potential technologies like Istio for managing microservice communication, traffic policies, and observability in Kubernetes environments."} - {"name":"Distributed Systems Principles","description":"Strong understanding of consensus algorithms, eventual consistency, and managing trade-offs in global financial systems operating across multiple regions."} - {"name":"Financial Systems Architecture","description":"Knowledge of payment processing, multi-entity accounting, multi-currency handling, and audit trail requirements specific to fintech infrastructure."} ### databases - {"name":"PostgreSQL","description":"Relational database for transactional systems in the Spend platform handling financial data with ACID guarantees."} - {"name":"Redis","description":"In-memory data store for caching, session management, and real-time data processing in financial workflows."} - {"name":"Apache Cassandra or similar NoSQL","description":"Distributed database for handling high-volume time-series data and analytics pipeline requirements across global regions."} ### languages - {"name":"Python","description":"For automation scripts, operational tooling, and infrastructure management across Airwallex's platform."} - {"name":"Go","description":"For high-performance tools, observability agents, and systems-level infrastructure components deployed at scale."} - {"name":"Bash","description":"For shell scripting, operational automation, and DevOps workflows in Linux environments."} ### frameworks - {"name":"Kubernetes","description":"Container orchestration platform for managing microservices at scale across production environments supporting financial operations."} - {"name":"Terraform","description":"Infrastructure-as-code tool for provisioning and managing cloud resources across AWS or GCP in a declarative manner."} - {"name":"Helm","description":"Package manager for Kubernetes enabling standardized application deployment, version control, and rollback capabilities."} ## Benefits ### benefits - {"name":"Competitive Compensation Package","description":"Comprehensive salary range aligned with Singapore market standards for senior engineering talent, with potential performance bonuses tied to role impact and company performance."} - {"name":"Equity Participation","description":"Opportunity to own a stake in Airwallex through equity grants, sharing in the company's growth as a rapidly scaling fintech infrastructure leader with 675,000+ customers globally."} - {"name":"Professional Development","description":"Investment in continuous learning through conference attendance, certification programs, and access to training resources in cloud architecture, observability, and fintech domain expertise."} - {"name":"Global Career Opportunities","description":"Access to career growth across Airwallex's 27 offices spanning North America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. Potential to lead initiatives on a global scale impacting financial infrastructure worldwide."} - {"name":"Health and Wellness","description":"Comprehensive health insurance coverage including medical, dental, and vision benefits. Mental health support, wellness programs, and fitness benefits to maintain work-life balance."} - {"name":"Flexible Work Arrangements","description":"While this role requires in-office presence in Singapore five days per week, Airwallex values flexibility for managing life commitments and provides supporting benefits for global team coordination across time zones."} - {"name":"Learning from Industry Leaders","description":"Opportunity to work on infrastructure supporting major global brands including McLaren Racing, Qantas, SHEIN, and TikTok. Learn from a team of 2,300+ talented engineers building next-generation financial systems."} ## Compensation - **max:** 220000 - **min:** 150000 - **currency:** SGD - **stockOptions:** true ## Interview process ### steps - {"name":"Initial Screening Call","description":"Introductory conversation with the hiring team to discuss your background, motivation for the role, and alignment with Airwallex's culture of ownership and first-principles thinking. Typically 30-45 minutes covering career progression and infrastructure experience."} - {"name":"Technical Assessment","description":"Deep-dive technical discussion focused on cloud architecture, Kubernetes expertise, and past infrastructure design decisions. Expect questions about scaling challenges you've solved, observability strategies you've implemented, and incident response approaches you've led."} - {"name":"Systems Design Interview","description":"Collaborative problem-solving session where you'll design infrastructure solutions for financial system challenges. May involve designing systems for high availability, global data migrations, or compliance-heavy architectures similar to those at Airwallex."} - {"name":"SRE Leadership Discussion","description":"Conversation with the Spend team lead or infrastructure leadership team exploring your approach to leading SRE strategy, building team processes, driving automation initiatives, and fostering reliability culture within product teams."} - {"name":"Cross-Functional Collaboration Interview","description":"Meeting with representatives from DevOps, Security, or Product teams to assess your ability to partner effectively across organizations, communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, and drive compliance and resilience initiatives collaboratively."} - {"name":"Final Leadership Round","description":"Conversation with senior management to discuss strategic vision, leadership philosophy, and how you'll contribute to Airwallex's goal of building the regulated backbone of global commerce. Discussion of compensation, role expectations, and career growth opportunities within the company."} ## 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 As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer, you’ll work closely with product teams in Spend to deliver and maintain scalable, reliable cloud infrastructure for key product initiatives. You’ll lead infrastructure design and delivery for complex, high-risk projects, including launching new services, executing global data centre migrations, and modernising data pipelines. * Improve reliability, performance, observability, and operational readiness across critical systems. * Partner with development, DevOps, and security teams to build resilient services. * Own infrastructure design and delivery for new services and roadmap initiatives. * Drive incident response, automation, team-level SLOs, runbooks, and DevOps performance metrics. * Deliver reliable infrastructure for complex, cross-functional projects with high availability and compliance requirements. You'll work from our Singapore office five days a week. ## What we're looking for ### Essentials * At least 5 years’ experience in an SRE, DevOps, or infrastructure-focused engineering role. * A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field. * Expertise in cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP, Kubernetes, observability, and incident response. * Experience leading SRE strategy for large-scale, cross-functional projects. * Strong experience supporting production systems with high availability and compliance requirements. * A proven ability to work closely with developers and guide reliability best practices. * Experience architecting and implementing cloud infrastructure for new services and roadmap initiatives. * Experience embedding with development teams to improve reliability, performance, and operational readiness. * Experience leading incident response, observability, and automation across critical systems. * Experience owning team-level SLOs, runbooks, and DevOps performance metrics. * Experience collaborating with central DevOps and security teams to ensure compliance and resilience. ### Preferred * Experience in a fintech or similarly regulated industry. * Familiarity with data streaming, analytics pipelines, or financial data systems. ## You'll thrive here if * You own the outcome and you don't wait for permission to fix what's broken. * You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway. * You hold yourself to a high standard even when no one is watching. Quality and accountability aren't external expectations, they're internal ones. * You enjoy working closely with people across multiple countries and time zones as part of one connected, global team, including flexing your hours occasionally to make that connection work. * You value in-person collaboration and are happy being in the office five days a week. ## Learn more about your team The Spend team builds Airwallex's financial operating layer for modern businesses, bringing together corporate cards, expenses, bills, and procurement on top of our accounts, payments, and issuing infrastructure. We're building AI that makes real decisions about expenses, policies, and payments, aiming to get 95%+ of submissions down to one click, while every workflow still has to hold up across multi-entity businesses, currencies, and audit trails. This is a team for people who want broad ownership across product, data, and AI, while the roadmap is still being defined. If you want to build production AI for real financial workflows that directly change how businesses operate, this is where that work happens. ## **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.