Airwallex - Enterprise Risk Manager

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates3w ago

In Office Senior EMEA Banking Fintech Risk Manager Recruiter Risk Management Team Management Product Marketing Reporting Cross-functional Collaboration

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Law, STEM, or another relevant quantitative field. • 5 to 7+ years of experience in risk management, operational risk, enterprise risk, compliance, controls, or audit within financial services, fintech, payments, banking, or another highly regulated environment. • Experience with defense frameworks, including risk appetite statements, risk taxonomies, governance processes, and escalation mechanisms. • Familiarity with the UAE financial services regulatory environment, including practical exposure to the Central Bank of the UAE and requirements relevant to electronic money, Stored Value Facilities or Retail Payment Services. • Demonstrated experience preparing risk papers and communicating effectively with executives, Board or committee audiences, regulators, or auditors, with excellent written and verbal communication skills. • A high-ownership, pragmatic approach, with the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment with evolving priorities and significant cross-functional collaboration. • Fintech and payments experience, including exposure to cross-border payments, merchant acquiring, card scheme environments, local payment methods, or multi-entity regulated groups. • Experience managing risk approvals and governance in a high-velocity product and engineering environment, where new features, products, markets, or operating models are launched frequently. • Strong data literacy and comfort using dashboards, metrics, and technology-enabled tools to support risk oversight and reporting. • A clear bias toward automation, AI, and scalable tooling to improve issue management, reporting, and second line efficiency, paired with the judgment to balance innovation, business agility, and control effectiveness. • 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 • Equal opportunity

Responsibilities

• As Enterprise Risk Manager - UAE, you will help establish and evolve Airwallex’s enterprise risk management capability in the UAE, while contributing to the broader global and regional risk agenda. You will help ensure that risk management supports responsible growth as Airwallex operationalises its UAE entity and expands its regulated payments offering in the region. • Airwallex has secured in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for Stored Value Facilities and Category II Retail Payment Services licences. These approvals support the planned provision of services including multi-currency accounts, global transfers, payment acceptance and corporate cards in the UAE. • Adapt and operationalise Airwallex’s global enterprise risk architecture for the UAE, including risk appetite, risk taxonomy, governance standards, risk limits, escalation protocols, reporting and decision rights. • Partner with Regulatory Compliance, Legal and UAE leadership to ensure risk governance reflects applicable Central Bank of the UAE expectations and requirements relevant to Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services. • Translate risk data, incidents, issues, trends and key risk indicators into clear, decision-useful reporting for UAE management, regional leadership, risk committees and, where appropriate, the Board or regulators. • Act as a trusted, independent second-line advisor, providing constructive challenge where initiatives may exceed approved risk appetite, regulatory expectations or the maturity of the control environment. • Support risk assessment and approval for new products, payment services, customer propositions, markets, partnerships, systems changes and material operating-model changes in the UAE. • Continue to develop the UAE crisis management and resilience framework, including escalation triggers, governance, executive response mechanisms, business continuity planning and severe-but-plausible scenario exercises. • Contribute to enterprise-wide risk initiatives, including improvements to risk reporting, dashboards, risk tools, automation and data quality, while sharing UAE insights with the global risk team. • Support consistent risk management standards across Airwallex’s regulated entities and help ensure that local practices are aligned with the Group’s enterprise risk framework. • Build strong relationships with local and global stakeholders, fostering a pragmatic and effective risk culture across the UAE business.