Senior Manager, Strategy & Operations CEO Office

About the role

This role involves leading Airwallex's expansion into new markets across EMEA and the Middle East. You will define market entry strategies, manage licensing, ensure product readiness, and oversee operational launches. This position requires direct collaboration with executive leadership to address complex regulatory and operational challenges.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Develop strategies for new country expansion across EMEA and the Middle East, including market sizing and competitive analysis.
• Design market entry models, including licensing paths, entity structures, and commercial frameworks.
• Influence the product roadmap by translating regulatory requirements into specific product scope and sequencing.
• Create and standardize operational tools and processes for market entry, using AI for research, drafting, and automation.
• Manage the go/no-go and launch-readiness processes, ensuring cross-functional alignment and risk mitigation.
• Contribute to other high-priority CEO Office initiatives such as strategic reviews, restructuring, or crisis response.

Requirements

• 5-8 years of experience in top-tier strategy consulting (MBB or similar), regulatory/financial services law, or strategy/expansion roles in fintech or payments, with exposure to market-entry or licensing projects.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multi-stakeholder programs from start to finish, including planning, execution, and executive updates.
• Strong organizational skills for structuring multi-workstream programs, managing dependencies, and driving timely decisions.
• Experience with financial services regulatory and licensing topics (e.g., payments, e-money, banking) and comfort engaging with legal, risk, and compliance teams.
• Proven use of AI tools in daily work for tasks like regulatory research, competitive analysis, or workflow automation, with good judgment on verification.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, including simplifying complex issues and influencing senior leaders.
• High sense of ownership, adaptability to ambiguity, and willingness to engage in detailed work to advance launches.

Nice to have

• Direct experience leading new market launches or license applications in EMEA or the Middle East for a fintech or financial institution.
• A background combining strategic problem-solving and execution, such as experience in both consulting and an in-house operating role, or legal/regulatory and commercial/product roles.
• Familiarity with cross-functional global expansion and product launch processes, understanding how various departments collaborate.
• Experience working within a CEO Office, strategy & operations, or similar central team managing company-level initiatives.
• Ability to build and refine lightweight AI tools for standardizing launch processes and automating status or risk tracking.

Skills & tools

• AI-assisted research
• AI-assisted drafting
• Automation
• Regulatory analysis
• Financial modeling
• Project governance

Practical notes

Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers, or payments during the application process. All official communications will come from an @airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com or the official LinkedIn page. Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters without a prior agreement.