Airwallex Limited

Engineering Director

Airwallex Limited$150K — $200K *
Finance & Insurance
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years in leadership roles
  • Demonstrated experience in managing managers or Engineering Leads
  • Strong ability to define roadmaps and prioritize project delivery
  • Deep technical fluency in software architecture and system design
  • Proven success in fast-paced, high-growth environments

Responsibilities

  • Lead the Expenses sub-domain, owning vision and roadmap
  • Evolve technical architecture across the Spend domain
  • Scale the US engineering team while providing mentorship
  • Drive operational excellence by setting OKRs and optimizing processes
  • Collaborate cross-functionally to align technical execution with business strategy
  • Own talent acquisition strategy to attract top engineering talent

Benefits

  • Opportunity to shape the future of agentic finance
  • Collaborative and fast-paced work environment
  • Focus on continuous learning and technical craftsmanship
  • Ability to work closely with Product, Design, and Commercial teams
  • Potential for career growth in a high-performing engineering team
Full Job Description
About the team

The Engineering team at Airwallex is a diverse group of innovators, builders, and problem solvers, driven by a mission to empower businesses to operate anywhere, anytime. We thrive in a collaborative and fast-paced environment, where we're constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the financial technology space. As a team, we value technical craftsmanship, continuous learning, and a strong sense of ownership, working together to build scalable, reliable, and secure products that empower businesses of all sizes to grow without borders.

What you'll do

You'll lead the engineering organization for Airwallex's Spend domain in the US, owning the technical strategy and architectural roadmap for products spanning corporate cards, expense management, and spend workflows. This is a domain-level leadership role where you will be accountable for delivery quality, engineering excellence, and team growth across multiple squads. You will partner closely with Product, Design, and Commercial stakeholders to translate business strategy into technical execution, while building and scaling a high-performing engineering team in San Francisco. Your leadership skills, product thinking, and business acumen are what will set you apart, even as you maintain deep technical fluency to guide architectural decisions through your team rather than hands-on.

One of the most exciting aspects of this role is the opportunity to shape the future of agentic finance, removing human tasks from financial workflows and replacing them with intelligent agents across expense submission, approval, and reconciliation.

This role is based in San Francisco, US.

Responsibilities:
  • Lead the Expenses sub-domain (product / family of products), owning the vision, delivery, and roadmap in close collaboration with the local product teams.
  • Work alongside other Engineering Managers to evolve the technical architecture across the entire Spend domain, contributing to engineering leadership decisions that mature the technical platform for the future, particularly in areas of data engineering, AI, and analytics.
  • Scale the US engineering team and whilst providing technical mentorship as new squads are established.
  • Drive operational excellence across your domain by setting challenging OKRs, optimizing delivery processes, and ensuring high-quality results across multiple concurrent projects.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Design, Commercial, and other US Engineering Leads to align technical execution with business strategy and help build Airwallex's US site culture and employer brand.
  • Own the talent acquisition strategy for your domain, working closely with Talent Acquisition to source, attract, and retain top engineering talent in the San Francisco market.


Minimum qualifications:
  • 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles (Engineering Manager, Director, or equivalent).
  • Demonstrated experience in people management, including managing 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.


Preferred qualifications:
  • Experience in fintech, financial services, payments, or a similarly regulated industry where correctness and data integrity are critical.
  • Familiarity with AI/ML-driven product development or experience evolving technical platforms to incorporate data engineering, analytics, or agentic automation capabilities.
  • Comfort operating across global time zones and collaborating with distributed engineering teams in multiple regions.
  • Entrepreneurial mindset with a bias toward action and continuous improvement, and curiosity to learn quickly, adapt fast, and grow through stretch opportunities.

About Airwallex Limited

Airwallex is a financial technology company that provides cross-border payment solutions for businesses. The company was founded in 2015 by a group of entrepreneurs from Australia and China. Airwallex's platform allows businesses to make and receive payments in multiple currencies at competitive exchange rates. The company has raised over $400 million in funding to date and has offices in several countries, including Australia, China, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Learn more about Airwallex Limited
Size
800 employees
Industry
Founded
2015

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