Associate Director, Payments/Scheme Economics

Job description

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 2,300 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. Who you are We are looking for an Associate Director, Payments/Scheme Economics to own the integrity, visibility and management of Airwallex’s payment costs, starting with card scheme fees and interchange fees across Visa and Mastercard. Reporting to the Head of Strategic Finance, you will be the subject matter expert on scheme economics, translating complex and rapidly changing network rules into accurate system configurations, financial outcomes and business decisions. You will ensure we understand what every payment should cost, that those costs are accurately reflected across our systems and financials, and that we systematically identify opportunities to improve payment economics as we scale. Over time, the remit will expand across other card schemes, local payment methods and the broader payments cost base. What you’ll do Own scheme economics and rule interpretation: Maintain deep expertise across scheme fees, interchange and network rules. Interpret scheme bulletins, operating regulations and fee schedules, translating changes into clear financial, product and operational requirements. Ensure accurate payment cost configuration: Translate complex scheme rules into fee tables, eligibility criteria and transaction-level logic. Partner with Product and Engineering to ensure cost calculation, allocation and customer billing accurately reflect current network rules across markets and payment flows. Pro…