Director, Product Legal (EmFi & Payments)

US - San Francisco · US - New York · 10+ years experience · Full-time · Hybrid · Posted Sep 23, 2026

At a glance

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 250,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, 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 2,300 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 27 offices around the globe. Valued at US$11 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.

You will serve as lead for a product-counsel team that covers Embedded Finance, Payments for Platforms, Issuing, and Lending.
You'll partner directly with Product, Enterprise Sales, Financial Partnerships, Risk, Regulatory Compliance, and Engineering to structure novel deal models, advise on multi-jurisdictional financial regulation, and ensure that Airwallex's EmFi products can scale globally with legal certainty.

Support global enterprise AEs through structuring and driving forward Airwallex's most complex EmFi deals, and advise Product and other cross-functional teams on questions about various EmFi models.
Provide practical, risk-weighted regulatory guidance on U.S. and international payments and financial services laws, including money transmission, AML/BSA, consumer protection (Reg E, UDAAP), card network rules, state licensing, and bank-partner/BaaS requirements, translating regulatory complexity into actionable product advice.
Draft, review, and negotiate financial partnership agreements and platform terms and conditions, including contracts with banks, PSPs, and card networks, and manage publication of terms updates for EmFi product changes.
Develop and maintain scalable legal playbooks, reference documents, and approved use-case repositories that enable Product, Commercial Legal, and Sales teams to move faster with less friction on standard deal patterns.
Collaborate closely with Regulatory Legal, Data & Privacy, Risk, FCC, and Commercial Legal to ensure cross-functional alignment on product launches, GRC escalations, and regulatory exam responses.
Contribute to Product Legal Readiness for new market and product launches across the global GTM roadmap, coordinating with Global Expansion & Licensing and regional product legal leads to deliver multi-jurisdictional regulatory assessments on time.

JD (or equivalent law degree) and active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
10+ years of experience in payments, complex deal structuring, and financial regulation, with a proven ability to make decisions on the fly in the face of ambiguous regulation and novel fact patterns.
Deep working knowledge of U.S. payments and financial services regulatory frameworks, including money transmission laws, AML/BSA, Reg E, UDAAP, card network rules, and bank-partner/BaaS program requirements.
Demonstrated experience serving as an embedded legal partner to product and engineering teams, providing proactive counsel from ideation through launch in a fast-paced fintech or financial services environment.
Strong drafting and negotiation skills, with experience structuring and negotiating agreements with banks, payment processors, card networks, or other financial partners.
Excellent cross-functional communication skills, with the ability to discuss complex technical and regulatory matters clearly with all levels of seniority, including C-suite stakeholders.

Prior experience at a top-tier law firm combined with in-house experience at a fintech, payments company, or technology company offering regulated financial products.
Experience with multi-jurisdictional product launches, including familiarity with European payments regulation (PSD2, e-money frameworks) or other non-U.S. financial services regimes.
Track record of building legal playbooks, scalable frameworks, or internal knowledge resources that reduce friction and accelerate product development cycles.
Comfort operating in environments with high standards, fast iteration cycles, and evolving priorities, with an entrepreneurial mindset and a bias toward action and continuous improvement.