Global Lead, Commercial Risk Strategy

About the role

Airwallex is building its first-line commercial risk function globally, reporting directly to the Chief Revenue Officer. The Global Lead owns the commercial risk strategy and supportability frameworks for the customers and use cases the company backs, defines the frameworks, guidance and governance that shape how the commercial book is originated, structured and grown, and works from the San Francisco office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Key responsibilities

• Build and lead the first-line commercial risk function globally, shaping how the business originates, structures and grows its commercial book.
• Define the frameworks, guidance and governance that support sustainable growth and sound risk decisions.
• Drive structured guidance for complex or high-risk merchant opportunities, helping commercial teams move the right opportunities forward and escalate appropriately.
• Translate second-line risk appetite and policies into practical commercial playbooks, controls and operating processes.
• Build continuous portfolio monitoring covering risk tiers, fraud or loss rates, revenue concentration and risk-adjusted commercial performance.
• Lead incident post-mortems, root-cause analysis, remediation and governance across multiple lines of defense.
• Partner with Sales, Partnerships, Account Management, Revenue Strategy & Operations, Data, Legal, Risk and Compliance to strengthen commercial risk capability and scale global coverage.

Required profile

• 10-12 years of risk management experience in financial services, including significant first-line or business-aligned experience interfacing with front-office or Sales teams.
• Deep expertise in at least two of: credit and portfolio risk, payments or merchant risk, operational and conduct risk, or enterprise risk.
• Track record of designing and implementing risk frameworks that influence commercial strategy within a Three Lines of Defense model.
• Experience defining commercial risk strategy and supportability frameworks, translating risk appetite into playbooks and controls, designing portfolio monitoring, and leading incident post-mortems.
• Preferred: high-growth fintech experience (payments, issuing, FX, modern banking), familiarity with KYC/AML, sanctions and card network rules, and experience recruiting and developing a global risk team.

Applicants should apply through the company's careers site; the company states it will not ask for bank details or sensitive IDs during the process and does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters.