Regulatory Counsel, Americas
Job Description
About Airwallex Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 676,000 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 to see it in full. About the team The Legal, Risk & Compliance (LRC) team at Airwallex is a collaborative group of legal minds and risk management experts. We're passionate about safeguarding Airwallex's operations, fostering a culture of compliance and ethical conduct, and ensuring we navigate the global financial landscape with integrity. We provide expert guidance and support to all areas of the business, proactively identifying, mitigating, and managing legal, compliance and financial risks. What you'll do You will be primarily responsible for supporting regulatory matters across the Americas region. This role will focus on advising on regulatory issues relating to payments and financial services, including licensing, money transmission and related requirements, and cross-border product offerings. You will support licensing, registration and ongoing compliance obligations in relevant Americas markets by helping to assess requirements, develop practical guidance, and partner closely with Regulatory Compliance and other control functions. As a Regulatory Counsel, you will provide practical legal advice to business and control-function stakeholders in the Americas. With support and mentorship from senior members of the team, you will own defined regulatory workstreams, contribute to licensing and product initiatives, and build deeper expertise in US payments regulation, money-transmitter licensing and the regulatory treatment of different payment flows. This role is well suited to someone who has strong regulatory fundamentals and wants to grow within a fast-moving fintech environment. You will work on meaningful matters across the US, with opportunities to support regulatory projects in Canada, Mexico and Brazil. The ideal candidate is curious, detail-oriented, collaborative and comfortable translating complex legal requirements into clear, actionable guidance. This hybrid role is based in San Francisco or New York. Responsibilities: Support regulatory legal matters relating to Airwallex’s business across the Americas, including advice on existing licenses and registrations and potential future applications. Research and summarize developments in payments and financial services regulation, identifying potential impacts on business operations and strategic objectives. Partner with Product Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Risk and Financial Crime Compliance teams on regulatory questions involving money transmission, stored value, FX, remittance, card issuing and related financial-services products. Support Product, Strategy, Management and Commercial teams on new market entry, license expansion and regulatory mapping for new products and features. Analyze how funds move through different payment structures and help identify the applicable licensing and regulatory requirements, escalating complex issues when appropriate. Provide clear, practical legal guidance and risk assessments to cross-functional stakeholders, with appropriate support from senior counsel and external advisers. Support the man