Senior Manager, Strategy & Operations (6-month FTC)

Senior Manager, Strategy & Operations (6-month FTC)

This is a high-visibility, group-wide role within the Regulatory & Compliance Strategy & Operations Office, responsible for shaping and executing Airwallex’s strategic priorities globally. Reporting to the Head of Strategy & Operations (Regulatory & Compliance), you will own and drive critical strategic initiatives—from global market expansion and operating model redesigns to cutting-edge AI and automation initiatives across compliance workflows.

As an ex-strategy consultant, you will bring rigorous problem-solving, structured frameworks, and executive-level stakeholder management to bridge the gap between high-level regulatory strategy and operational execution. You will partner closely with Global Leadership, Product, Engineering, Risk, and Regional Operations to ensure our regulatory infrastructure scales efficiently alongside our business expansion.

Note: This is a 6-month fixed-term contract role, with the possibility of becoming permanent, subject to business needs. Candidates must be available to start immediately.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Project Leadership: Own and drive end-to-end execution of group-wide strategic projects, including new market expansion strategies, global regulatory licensing roadmaps, and cross-functional operating model redesigns.

• Compliance Transformation & Automation: Partner with Product, Data Science, and Engineering to identify, architect, and deploy AI-driven tools, automation workflows, and scalable tech infrastructure across regulatory and compliance operations.

• Operating Model & Strategy Architecture: Diagnose operational bottlenecks and design modern, scalable 1LOD/2LOD interaction models, governance structures, and global compliance frameworks.

• Executive & Group-Wide Alignment: Act as a trusted strategic advisor to senior leadership, preparing board-level presentations, strategic business cases, and quantitative decision frameworks for the Chief Regulatory & Compliance Officer and Global Executive Team.

• Cross-Functional Execution: Mobilize matrixed project teams across Legal, Compliance, Product, Engineering, Finance, and Operations to deliver high-priority strategic mandates on time and within budget.

• Performance & Metrics Governance: Define, track, and optimize key strategic metrics, operational efficiency benchmarks, and ROI on major compliance transformation investments.

• Who you are

• You have a ‘founder’s mentality’—you are equally comfortable debating high-level strategy with the C-suite as you are rolling up your sleeves to build a new process from scratch.

Minimum qualifications:

• 6–8+ years of total professional experience, with a minimum of 4+ years at a top-tier strategy consulting firm.

• Demonstrated experience delivering strategic projects within financial services, global payments, fintech, or technology platforms.

• Exceptional problem-solving skills, with a proven ability to structure ambiguous strategic questions into clear hypotheses, analytical frameworks, and operational roadmaps.

• Strong quantitative and analytical capabilities, with a track record of translating complex data into actionable executive insights.

• Superior communication, storytelling, and executive presence, with experience influencing C-suite stakeholders and matrixed global teams.

Preferred qualifications:

• Advanced degree (e.g., MBA or Master’s in