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Airwallex is a unified payments and financial platform for global businesses, serving over 250,000 companies worldwide including Brex, Navan, and Qantas. Valued at $11 billion and backed by leading investors including Sequoia and Visa, the company operates across 27 offices globally with 2,300+ employees.
You will serve as Senior Employment Counsel for the Americas, acting as a hands-on strategic partner to the People & Talent team on high-risk employment matters. This role combines traditional employment law with unique challenges arising from Airwallex's regulated entity structure across multiple jurisdictions.
Key responsibilities include:
- Advising People & Talent leadership and business leaders on the full employee lifecycle: hiring, contracts, performance management, accommodations, leaves, wage and hour compliance, and terminations
- Leading workplace investigations and sensitive employee matters end-to-end in collaboration with cross-functional teams
- Drafting, refreshing, and owning employment-related policies and templates that scale across the organization
- Managing employment disputes, agency charges, and litigation, including instructing and controlling external counsel and legal spend
- Coordinating multi-jurisdiction employment advice across APAC, EMEA, and the Americas, including contractor and employer-of-record arrangements, cross-border remote work, and mobility risk
- Advising on compensation, benefits, and equity matters in a private company context
This role is ideal for someone who wants to build scalable playbooks and templates for an employment function at a high-growth fintech, not just respond to individual requests. You'll work with a legal team that sits at the heart of Airwallex's growth decisions, balancing rapid product and revenue expansion with regulatory discipline.
The role is based in San Francisco, New York, or Seattle, with flexibility across these three locations.
REQUIREMENTS:
Minimum Qualifications:
- J.D. degree (or foreign equivalent) and active membership in at least one US state bar (California, Washington, or New York preferred)
- 7+ years of employment law experience at a leading law firm and/or in-house legal department, with demonstrated employment counseling experience beyond litigation alone
- Experience advising on and coordinating employment law advice across multiple jurisdictions
- Experience leading workplace investigations and managing employment disputes, agency charges, or tribunal matters
- Ability to translate complex legal and risk issues into clear, succinct, and actionable guidance for non-legal audiences
- High motivation and ability to operate independently and pivot quickly within a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience at a fintech, payments company, or other highly regulated business
- Experience with contractor classification, employer-of-record populations, or cross-border remote work and permanent establishment risk
- Learner's mentality with consistent drive to take on new and diverse challenges and expand knowledge beyond current expertise
- Comfort operating across time zones with a globally distributed team, including colleagues based in APAC and EMEA
