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Associate Director, Payments/Scheme Economics

Airwallex· Finance & Corporate Development
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NL - AmsterdamFull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Associate Director responsible for owning the integrity, visibility and management of Airwallex’s payment costs, starting with card scheme fees and interchange fees across Visa and Mastercard. Reports to the Head of Strategic Finance. Focuses on scheme economics, translating network rules into accurate system configurations, financial outcomes and business decisions, with expansion to other schemes and payment methods over time.

Responsibilities

  • Own scheme economics and rule interpretation: Maintain deep expertise across scheme fees, interchange and network rules. Interpret scheme bulletins, operating regulations and fee schedules, translating changes into clear financial, product and operational requirements.
  • Ensure accurate payment cost configuration: Translate complex scheme rules into fee tables, eligibility criteria and transaction-level logic. Partner with Product and Engineering to ensure cost calculation, allocation and customer billing accurately reflect current network rules across markets and payment flows.
  • Protect payment cost integrity: Establish robust governance, testing and controls across scheme configurations. Reconcile expected costs against actual network charges, identify anomalies and leakage, and drive root-cause resolution.
  • Build granular visibility into payment economics: Develop robust models and analytics across markets, products, payment methods and transaction types, creating a clear view of unit economics, margin drivers and cost movements.
  • Drive structural cost and margin optimization: Identify, quantify and execute opportunities to improve economics through transaction qualification, BIN routing, cost configuration, and other levers. Partner with Product, Finance and Commercial teams to prioritize the highest-value opportunities.
  • Shape pricing and commercial decisions: Translate underlying payment economics into recommendations for customer pricing, product design, new market launches and commercial strategy, ensuring growth is supported by sustainable unit economics.
  • Build scalable infrastructure and automation: Partner with Product, Engineering, and Data teams to strengthen cost engines, fee allocation logic, dashboards and automated controls. Apply AI and advanced analytics to accelerate rule interpretation, detect anomalies and surface optimization opportunities.
  • Own complex scheme economics issues: Serve as the escalation point for scheme pricing, interchange and rule-related questions, working directly with Visa, Mastercard and other payment partners where required.

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of relevant experience in payments, acquiring, issuing, card networks, payment infrastructure or related roles, ideally within a global PSP, acquirer, scheme, issuer or fintech.
  • Deep knowledge of card payment economics, particularly Visa and Mastercard interchange, scheme fees, transaction qualification and network rules.
  • Strong ability to operationalize complex payment rules, translating fee schedules and network requirements into system logic, configurations and controls.
  • Experience with payment cost systems and controls, including interchange tables, scheme fee logic, BIN-based rules, transaction attributes or similar payment configurations.
  • Strong analytical and quantitative capabilities, including experience working with transaction-level data, economic modeling and reconciliation of expected versus actual payment costs.
  • Strong commercial judgment, with the ability to connect detailed payment mechanics to pricing, product decisions and margin optimization.
  • Exceptional attention to detail and ownership, with the discipline required to manage complex rules where small errors can create meaningful financial impact at scale.
  • Strong cross-functional execution, with the ability to work effectively across Product, Engineering, Finance, Data, Operations and external payment partners.

Skills

Required:Card scheme economicsCost configuration and rule translationData analytics and modelingCross-functional collaboration
Last updated Oct 7, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Airwallex

Trusted Global Payments & Financial Platform

Grow your business faster with Airwallex - global business accounts, high speed transfers, multi-currency cards, online payments, embedded finance, and more.

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