Engineering Director, Payments Platform

airwallex· Engineering
Apply Now ↗
📍 US - San FranciscoFullTime💰 USD 237K–407K

About this role

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

Payments Platform at Airwallex is where global payment complexity is turned into infrastructure that helps businesses accept and move money more simply.

We build the platform behind how payments are accepted and processed across markets, helping businesses embed payments into their workflows, improve conversion, and operate with less friction. The work supports a core growth lever for Airwallex: payment experiences that are reliable, scalable, and easy to use.

What makes this team distinct is the challenge at the heart of it: balancing performance, reliability, local complexity, and commercial outcomes in the same system. Small improvements can materially affect customer experience and conversion, while failures are immediately visible.

You'll do well here if you enjoy product infrastructure with clear business impact. This team suits engineers who are thoughtful, pragmatic, and motivated by making complex problems feel simple to customers.

If you want to build the platform that makes payments work seamlessly for businesses around the world, this is the team at the center of that mission.

What you’ll do

As an Engineering Director, you will the teams that are responsible for building and operating critical components of the Payments Platform. This role combines people leadership, technical direction, and delivery ownership.

This role can be based in Singapore, United Kingdom and San Francisco, United States.

Responsibilities:

  • Define and execute the Payments Platform vision: Own the end-to-end strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Airwallex's Payments Platform — covering payment processing, routing, settlement, reconciliation, and partner integrations — ensuring it scales reliably across global markets.

  • Lead and grow a world-class engineering organization: Manage, coach, and develop Engineering Managers and senior technical talent across multiple squads, building a culture of ownership, technical excellence, and continuous improvement while driving sustainable hiring and team growth.

  • Drive technical architecture and platform excellence: Provide architectural direction for high-volume, mission-critical payment systems, setting high standards for reliability, observability, security, scalability, and developer productivity across the platform.

  • Deliver with speed and operational rigor: Set clear OKRs, manage execution across multiple concurrent initiatives, and hold teams accountable for high-quality outcomes — balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform investments and operational health.

  • Collaborate cross-functionally to align technology with business outcomes: Partner closely with Product, Commercial, Risk, Compliance, and regional engineering leaders to ensure platform capabilities directly support Airwallex's growth, customer experience, and regulatory requirements.

Who you are

We are looking for engineering leaders with deep technical expertise and a strong track record of impact.

Minimum qualifications:

  • 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles.

  • Demonstrated experience in people management, including managing Engineering Managers or Engineering Leads, with a track record of building and scaling high-performing teams.

  • Strong product thinking and the ability to partner closely with Product Management to define roadmaps, prioritize delivery, and drive business outcomes.

  • Deep technical fluency in software architecture and system design, with experience guiding architectural decisions for large-scale, complex distributed systems.

  • Proven ability to operate in fast-paced, high-growth environments where incremental improvement, ownership, and speed of execution are valued.

  • Experience in fintech, financial services, payments, or a similarly regulated industry where correctness and data integrity are critical.

 

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the salary for the Engineering Director, Payments Platform role at airwallex?
The listed salary for this Engineering Director, Payments Platform position at airwallex is USD 237K–407K. This is an FullTime role.
Where is the Engineering Director, Payments Platform position at airwallex located?
This Engineering Director, Payments Platform role at airwallex is based in US - San Francisco. The position is listed as on-site or hybrid. Check the full job description or apply directly to confirm the work arrangement.
Is the Engineering Director, Payments Platform role at airwallex full-time or part-time?
This is listed as a FullTime position. It is posted as a Engineering Director, Payments Platform role in the Engineering department at airwallex.
Which team or department does the Engineering Director, Payments Platform at airwallex belong to?
This Engineering Director, Payments Platform position is part of the Engineering department at airwallex. See the full job description for more information about the team structure and responsibilities.
How do I apply for the Engineering Director, Payments Platform position at airwallex?
Click the "Apply Now" button on this page. You will be redirected to airwallex's official application portal hosted on ashby where you can submit your application directly.
When was the Engineering Director, Payments Platform job at airwallex posted?
This Engineering Director, Payments Platform position at airwallex was posted on Aug 11, 2026. Apply as soon as possible — early applications are often reviewed first.
Engineering Director, Payments Platform
airwallex · 💰 USD 237K–407K
Apply for this role ↗

You'll be redirected to airwallex's official application page on Ashby ATS.