Enterprise Risk Manager - UAE

About Airwallex Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy.

More than 675,000 businesses, including McLaren Racing, Qantas, SHEIN, and TikTok, use us, directly or through our platform partners, to run their financial operations or build and monetize financial products of their own. We started in Melbourne in 2015 to build the infrastructure global commerce runs on.

We're the regulated backbone behind global payments: not by accident, but by design. A decade plus, 85+ licenses, and a financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. We're co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, with more than 2,700 people across 27 offices.

We hire builders with founder-level energy, people who move fast with good judgment, dig in with real curiosity, and make calls from first principles rather than waiting to be told what to do. Read our operating principles to see it in full.

How you'll make impact As Enterprise Risk Manager - UAE, you'll help establish and evolve Airwallex's enterprise risk management capability in the UAE while contributing to the broader global and regional risk agenda.

You'll operationalise Airwallex's global enterprise risk architecture locally, covering risk appetite, taxonomy, governance standards, risk limits, escalation protocols, reporting and decision rights.

You'll partner with Regulatory Compliance, Legal, UAE leadership, Product, Engineering and Operations to support responsible growth as Airwallex operationalises its UAE entity and expands its regulated payments offering.

You'll translate risk data, incidents, issues, trends and key risk indicators into clear reporting for UAE management, regional leadership, risk committees and, where appropriate, the Board or regulators, while providing independent second-line challenge on initiatives, products, partnerships and material operating-model changes.

Own the local implementation of Airwallex's global enterprise risk architecture, including risk appetite, risk taxonomy, governance standards, risk limits, escalation protocols, reporting and decision rights.

Partner with Regulatory Compliance, Legal and UAE leadership to align risk governance with applicable Central Bank of the UAE expectations and requirements relevant to Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services.

Deliver clear, decision-useful reporting by translating risk data, incidents, issues, trends and key risk indicators for UAE management, regional leadership, risk committees and, where appropriate, the Board or regulators.

Provide independent second-line challenge on initiatives that 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.

Strengthen the UAE crisis management and resilience framework, including escalation triggers, governance, executive response mechanisms, business continuity planning and severe-but-plausible scenario exercises.

Improve enterprise-wide risk reporting, dashboards, risk tools, automation and data quality while sharing UAE insights with the global risk team. Build strong relationships with local and global stakeholders and support consistent risk management standards across Airwallex's regulated entities.

You'll work from our Abu Dhabi office. What we're looking for Essentials 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 defence frameworks, including risk appetite statements, risk taxonomies, governance processes, and escalation mechanisms. Familiarity with the UAE