Director, Commercial Legal, APAC

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 150,000 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 1,700 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$6.2 billion and backed by world-leading investors including Visa, Airtree, Blackbird, Sequoia, DST Global, Greenoaks, Salesforce Ventures, Lone Pine, and Square Peg, 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.

Airwallex is seeking a seasoned Commercial Legal leader, fluent in Mandarin, to join and support our rapidly expanding legal team across APAC, with a focus on China and Hong Kong. In this strategic leadership role, you will navigate a diverse range of commercial legal matters, supporting our dynamic Sales organization and helping to scale our operations across the region.

You’ll work on complex, innovative fintech products that demand sharp problem-solving and critical thinking. As a senior member of the legal team, you’ll serve as a trusted advisor to Airwallex’s APAC go-to-market leadership and play a visible, influential role in shaping our commercial legal strategy.

This position is based in Singapore or Hong Kong.

Responsibilities:

• Leadership. Manage a small and effective commercial legal team across APAC
• Drive complex deals. Personally lead negotiations on high-stakes enterprise commercial and strategic partnership deals across APAC (with a strong emphasis on our China/HK business), many with significant cross-border elements
• Build for scale. Develop and implement an innovative strategy for delivering efficient and effective commercial legal support. Drive the creation and maintenance of scalable templates, playbooks, and processes to support our rapidly growing business
• Be a strategic partner. Act as a key advisor to our dynamic, globally distributed commercial leadership. Partner with Sales, Partnerships, and Strategy teams to scale our go-to-market efforts and advance multi-product and multi-jurisdictional deal strategies
• Enhance Efficiency. Partner with our data and operations teams to leverage technology, automation, and data-driven insights to increase the efficiency and impact of the commercial legal function
• Collaborate Globally. Work closely and effectively with Airwallex’s global legal, compliance, and risk teams on deals and projects that involve multiple jurisdictions
• Contribute to Culture. Make a positive contribution to the culture of the Airwallex legal team, the APAC leadership team, and the company as a whole

Who you are

We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in commercial, financial service and corporate law preferably with a fast-growing tech startup or top-tier strategy/management consulting or law firm
• LLB, LLM or Juris Doctor
• Native fluency in Mandarin (both written and spoken) is essential due to the need to negotiate and review contracts and communicate with key stakeholders in Mandarin
• A keen interest in financial services regulation and the fintech industry
• Experience managing a team
• In-depth knowledge of the legal and business environment in the APAC region
• Outstanding negotiation, communication, and leadership skills
• The ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams
• Demonstrated capability in managing and leading legal teams
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities

Preferred qualifications:

• Previous experience working at a payments/fintech startup

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.

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.