Regulatory Counsel, Middle East

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 200,000 businesses worldwide - including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN, and many more - with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 2,000 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$8 billion and backed by world leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood Ventures, Sequoia, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, and Lone Pine Capital, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you're ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.

Attributes We Value

We hire successful builders with founder like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role related expertise and sharp thinking, and you're motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor. You're humble and collaborative; you turn zero to one ideas into real products and get stuff done end to end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you'll tackle complex, high visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let's build what's next.

About The Team

Airwallex's Regulatory Legal team is a high impact, collaborative group that plays a central role in enabling our expansion and success across the regions we're present in. We support Airwallex's continued growth by providing expert legal guidance on regulatory matters, partnering closely with Product Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Financial Crime Compliance, and other teams to deliver innovative financial products compliantly and at scale. This fast paced, growth oriented environment lets you work alongside committed colleagues, engage in strategic projects with global reach, and influence business critical decisions.

What You'll Do

You will be based in either the United Arab Emirates or Israel, with responsibility for regulatory legal support across the Middle East. This role focuses on advising on complex regulatory issues relating to payments and financial services in key Middle Eastern markets, supporting both local activities and cross border product offerings.

You will support the build out and maintenance of our licensing and registration portfolio in the region by helping to implement appropriate measures and controls and working closely with Regulatory Compliance and other control functions.

You will be a valuable member of the global legal and compliance team and will have the opportunity to support a rapidly growing business and the management team to navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. This dynamic role is ideal for someone who enjoys wearing multiple hats and solving complex issues and blockers for our clients, is detail oriented, willing to take on challenges and changes, obsessively curious, intellectually honest, thrives on taking action, and delivers impactful results.

Responsibilities

• Handle regulatory legal issues relating to our business in the Middle East and provide strategic advice to cross functional stakeholders regarding existing licences/registrations and potential future licence applications in key markets.
• Monitor, report, and analyse trends and developments in payments and financial services regulation across the Middle East, actively identifying and anticipating changes that may impact business operations or strategic objectives.
• Partner closely with Product Legal, Regulatory Compliance, Risk, and Financial Crime Compliance teams to ensure robust compliance with applicable laws and regulations in the region.
• Support local and global Product, Strategy, and Management teams and regional Commercial teams on new market entry and expansion of regulatory licences in the Middle East, including regulatory mapping and licensing advice.
• Liaise with senior Airwallex stakeholders globally, providing timely, pragmatic regulatory legal advice and risk assessments on business initiatives impacting the Middle East.
• Manage external legal counsel and consultants in the region, ensuring high quality, cost effective support aligned with Airwallex's business drivers and risk appetite.
• Leverage AI and other tooling to enhance the scale, efficiency, and effectiveness of the Regulatory Legal team.
• Provide legal advice on Airwallex's regulatory compliance obligations with respect to ongoing regulatory compliance and submission of regulatory reports and filings in relevant Middle Eastern jurisdictions, partnering with the Regulatory Compliance team to support timely and accurate filings.
• Support government relations outreach to legislators and regulatory agencies in key Middle Eastern markets (e.g., central banks, financial services regulators, and free zone regulators); help shape policy and regulatory approaches relevant to the business.

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer with around 6 8 years of relevant post qualification experience (P3 level).
• Strong regulatory experience in the fintech industry, reputable law firms, and/or financial institutions, focusing on payments, e money, FX, remittance and/or card issuing in Middle Eastern markets.
• Private practice and in house experience is ideal but not mandatory.
• Demonstrated success advising on regulatory matters and handling regulatory submissions, filings, and strategy, ideally including direct engagement with central banks, financial services regulators, and/or free zone regulators in the Middle East.
• Strong understanding of the financial services regulatory environment in the Middle East, particularly as it relates to payments, remittance, FX, issuing and digital financial services.
• Experience supporting expansion into new markets and launching new regulatory licences in the fintech, payments, or financial services sectors is advantageous.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work cross functionally and build trust with business, legal, compliance, and external counsel stakeholders.
• Proactive, results driven, and ownership oriented, with a clear track record of managing multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Fluent in English, with strong drafting and negotiation skills; additional languages used in the region (e.g., Arabic) are an advantage.
• Ability to influence, explain complex legal topics to non lawyers, and frame business relevant, risk balanced solutions.
• Collaborative team player, embraces ambiguity, and thrives in fast paced, evolving environments.
• Experience using, deploying, or developing RegTech, LegalTech, or AI tools to enhance the legal function is ideal but not mandatory.

Additional Information

At Airwallex you'll have the ability to make an impact in a rapidly growing, global fintech. We offer a competitive salary plus valuable equity within Airwallex. We ensure a collaborative open office space with a fully stocked kitchen and regular team building events, giving you the freedom to be creative.

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 email address. Please apply only through or our official LinkedIn page. Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or recruiters. We will not pay any fees to search firms or recruiters unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open positions.

Equal opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and consider anyone seeking employment at Airwallex on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent. We don't regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital status, family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.