Compliance Director, MLRO – Americas

Airwallex

Compliance Director & MLRO overseeing financial crime compliance across Americas markets at Airwallex. Leading compliance specialists and liaising with regulators to enable regional business expansion.

Posted 5/21/2026full-timeSan Francisco • California, New York • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $200,000 - $300,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead, mentor, and scale the AMER regional compliance team, ensuring robust regulatory coverage, local compliance sovereignty, and consistent application of global standards across all active jurisdictions and states.
Act as the primary regulatory liaison for the AMER region, managing day-to-day relationships, complex regulatory inquiries, and high-stakes examinations with federal and state authorities (including FinCEN, NYDFS, state banking departments, and FINTRAC).
Oversee and execute local financial crime operations and reporting workflows in instances where regional regulatory mandates strictly require second-line actions to be performed within the region or specific state jurisdictions.
Monitor the AMER regulatory landscape for shifting BSA/AML, USA PATRIOT Act, sanctions, and financial crime developments, ensuring material updates are proactively analyzed and escalated to the Global Policy team for framework integration.
Serve as the definitive regional second-line authority, providing formal compliance sign-off on high-risk decisions and complex escalations elevated to the Governance and Risk Committee (GRC).
Provide strategic regulatory guidance and compliance advisory on Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs), novel customer use cases, and new regional or state license applications to enable safe, compliant market entry.
Lead the deployment and calibration of specialized financial crime compliance training curricula for regional business units, commercial teams, and US/AMER staff to foster a risk-aware operational culture.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor’s degree in Law, Criminology, Public Policy, Finance, Business Administration, or a related analytical field.
CAMS certification or an equivalent globally recognized compliance credential.
12 to 15+ years of experience in AML, Sanctions, and Financial Crime Compliance within financial services, fintech, payments, or banking.
At least 5+ years of senior leadership experience managing multi-jurisdictional compliance teams or serving as a designated BSA/AML Officer or MLRO within the US or Canada.
Proven track record of interacting directly with AMER regulators (such as FinCEN, NYDFS, state regulators, or FINTRAC) and successfully managing complex regulatory examinations and state licensing audits.
Experience providing compliance advisory on product rollouts, US state money transmitter licensing strategies, and complex corporate customer use cases within a matrixed environment.
A high-ownership, pragmatic approach, with excellent communication and stakeholder management skills to influence cross-functional executives and external partners.

Benefits

Comp & perks

medical, dental, and vision insurance
401(k) plan
short-term and long-term disability
basic life insurance
well-being benefits
20 paid days of vacation
12 paid days of company holidays

ATS Keywords

✓ Tailor your resume

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

AMLSanctionsFinancial Crime ComplianceRegulatory ComplianceCompliance AdvisoryProduct Requirement DocumentsAcceptable Use PoliciesRisk ManagementFinancial Crime OperationsLicensing Strategies

Soft Skills

LeadershipMentoringCommunicationStakeholder ManagementStrategic GuidanceAnalytical SkillsProblem SolvingInfluencingOperational CultureCross-Functional Collaboration

Certifications

CAMS