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Associate Director, Transaction Monitoring

Airwallex· Regulatory & Compliance
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UK - LondonFull-timePosted 5d ago

About the role

Senior leadership role owning and evolving Airwallex’s global second-line Transaction Monitoring program, including governance, policy standards, and modernisation across products, rails, jurisdictions and regional teams.

Responsibilities

  • Own Airwallex’s global second-line Transaction Monitoring strategy, governance framework and policy standards across products, payment rails, customer base and jurisdictions.
  • Drive independent 2LOD challenge and oversight of 1LOD Transaction Monitoring teams, raising investigative rigour, alert disposition quality and consistency in suspicious activity detection.
  • Oversee second line regional SAR/STR/SMR reporting teams in performance of L3 review and preparation of suspicious activity reports according to relevant requirements, in coordination with regional and local MLROs.
  • Oversee the second line global Financial Intelligence Unit in performance of complex investigations, including cross-regional reviews, internal and external referrals, intelligence scanning and emerging risk typology development.
  • Collaborate with the FCC Global Models lead on governance of the global Transaction Monitoring rule lifecycle, including typology identification, scenario logic, segmentation, threshold tuning, and testing across cross-border payments and multi-currency accounts.
  • Lead the evolution from threshold-based monitoring towards AI-driven anomaly detection, machine-learning behavioural clustering and automated alert triage while maintaining explainability and regulatory defensibility.
  • Partner with Product, Data Science and Engineering to embed Transaction Monitoring logic into core transaction-processing systems and real-time payment infrastructure.
  • Resolve complex financial crime escalations, including novel laundering schemes, sanctions-evasion typologies and complex SAR/STR decisions.
  • Improve model effectiveness by partnering with Model Risk Management, Quantitative teams and Audit to validate Transaction Monitoring models and maintain coverage mapping against global regulatory standards.
  • Represent Airwallex’s Transaction Monitoring programme in regulatory examinations, including FCA, MAS, HKMA and AUSTRAC reviews, as well as partner-bank due diligence.

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of dedicated AML and financial crime experience, with deep technical and operational expertise in Transaction Monitoring across global cross-border payments, corporate banking, FX or fintech platforms.
  • 3+ years of experience leading, managing or mentoring compliance professionals in a global or multi-regional setting.
  • Proven experience establishing 2LOD oversight frameworks, rule-governance processes and effective challenge mechanisms for high-volume, automated Transaction Monitoring platforms.
  • Demonstrated ability to work with large datasets, SQL, data analytics and modern Transaction Monitoring models, translating business logic into technical parameters for Data Science and Engineering teams.
  • Practical experience evaluating, testing or deploying AI/ML tools, graph analytics or automated dispositioning models in a regulatory compliance environment.
  • Strong understanding of global AML rules, typology standards and reporting expectations across regulators (FCA, FinCEN, MAS, HKMA, AUSTRAC).
  • Proven track record of managing regulatory examinations, internal or external audits and banking-partner inquiries relating to Transaction Monitoring systems and controls.
  • Exceptional stakeholder-management and communication skills, with the ability to explain complex quantitative Transaction Monitoring models and risk decisions clearly to senior executives and external authorities.
  • Based in the UK, ideally within reach of Birmingham, with the agility to collaborate across APAC, EMEA and Americas time zones.
  • CAMS, CFCS, CFE or equivalent industry certification.
  • A bachelor’s degree.

Skills

Required:AML / Financial Crime expertise2LOD governance and oversightData analysis / SQLRegulatory engagement
Nice to have:AI/ML in compliance
Last updated Oct 22, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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