Responsibilities

As Senior Associate, Global Expansion Strategy & Operations, you will help take new Airwallex markets from strategy to launch across the Americas.
This role goes beyond traditional program management. You will be expected to understand the substance behind the workstreams you support, form hypotheses, identify what is actually blocking progress, and help move complex issues toward decisions.
Over time, you will develop a broad understanding of how a global financial platform is built – from regulatory strategy and product infrastructure to operations and commercial launch.
This role is based in San Francisco.
Build market-entry strategies. Assess market attractiveness, customer opportunity, competitive dynamics, regulatory feasibility, and Airwallex’s right to win. Help develop recommendations on where we should expand and what capabilities we need to succeed.
Design the market-entry model. Evaluate licensing pathways, entity structures, partnerships, and operating models. Work with Legal, Compliance, Finance, Treasury, and other teams to translate regulatory constraints into practical business and operating decisions.
Translate strategy into product requirements. Partner with Product and Engineering to convert market-entry and regulatory requirements into concrete product scope, sequencing, and launch dependencies. Help ensure the roadmap reflects what is actually required to operate and scale locally.
Drive cross-functional launch readiness. Own defined workstreams within market launches and work across functions to identify critical-path dependencies, surface blockers early, establish clear ownership, and drive issues toward resolution. Support go/no-go decisions across product, regulatory, operational, risk, and commercial dimensions.
Enable executive decision-making. Synthesize complex and sometimes conflicting perspectives into clear choices and recommendations. Prepare concise materials for CEO Office and executive leadership on market prioritization, investment decisions, key trade-offs, risks, and launch readiness.
Build the Global Expansion operating system. Develop reusable frameworks, dashboards, templates, and lightweight AI-enabled tools that make expansion more systematic. Automate areas such as regulatory research, licence mapping, competitive intelligence, status reporting, risk tracking, and dependency management where doing so improves speed and quality.
Take on broader CEO Office priorities. Flex onto high-priority initiatives beyond core market expansion, including strategic reviews, restructuring or migration programs, crisis-response workstreams, and cross-market operating or structuring questions.

Qualification

Excellent communication and synthesisHigh ownership and operating disciplineComfort using AI toolsExperience in fintechFluency in Spanish and/or PortugueseApplicant Safety Policy

Required

2–4 years of experience in top-tier strategy consulting (MBB or equivalent), or in a strategy, operations, expansion, product strategy, or regulatory role within fintech, payments, banking, or financial infrastructure.
Strong structured problem-solving skills. You can take an ambiguous problem, break it down, identify what matters most, and develop a point of view without waiting for perfect information.
Experience driving at least one complex cross-functional initiative involving product, regulatory, operational, or commercial stakeholders, with clear personal ownership for moving the work forward.
Excellent communication and synthesis. You can go deep enough to understand a complex issue and then explain it clearly and concisely to different audiences, including senior stakeholders.
High ownership and operating discipline. You move quickly, manage dependencies and follow-through reliably, seek feedback early, and are willing to roll up your sleeves when needed.
Comfort using AI tools. You use AI for research, analysis, drafting, synthesis, or workflow improvement and exercise sound judgment around verification, source quality, and when human expertise is required.

Preferred

Experience in fintech, payments, banking, or financial infrastructure, particularly in strategy, operations, product, expansion, or regulatory roles
Experience in financial or payments markets in Latam
Experience supporting new-market launches, new financial products, or other complex cross-functional initiatives.
Exposure to financial-services regulation or licensing, such as payments, money transmission, e-money, banking, card issuing, or FX.
Experience working across functions such as Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance, Treasury, Operations, and Commercial to deliver a shared business outcome.
Experience building lightweight automation, dashboards, or AI-enabled workflows to improve research, reporting, decision-making, or program execution.
Fluency in Spanish and/or Portuguese.
Applicant Safety Policy: Fraud and Third-Party Recruiters

Senior Associate, Strategy & Operations, CEO Office at Airwallex · LumiJobs

Senior Associate, Strategy & Operations, CEO Office

Responsibilities

Qualification

Required

Preferred

Company

Airwallex

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