Counsel, Americas

Position: Employment Counsel, Americas
About Airwallex Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 675,000 businesses, including McLaren Racing, Qantas, SHEIN, and Tik Tok, use us, directly or through our platform partners, to run their financial operations or build and monetize financial products of their own.

We started in Melbourne in 2015 to build the infrastructure global commerce runs on. We're the regulated backbone behind global payments: not by accident, but by design. A decade plus, 85+ licenses, and a financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

We're co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, with more than 2,300 people across 27 offices. We hire builders with founder-level energy, people who move fast with good judgment, dig in with real curiosity, and make calls from first principles rather than waiting to be told what to do. Read our operating principles to see it in full.

About the team Legal & Licensing at Airwallex sits at the heart of the decisions that shape how Airwallex grows. This team backs the visionary builders transforming Airwallex into a generational financial company, sharing the journey of product development and sales alongside our business partners. You’ll help shape a global licensing footprint most fintechs wish they had, while making sure our brand and data architecture stay best-in-class for customers entering the agentic economy and ready for its regulatory demands.

The hard part is helping the business move fast on product, revenue, and new-market expansion without compromising the regulatory discipline that protects the moat.

What you’ll doYou'll be the Employment Counsel for Airwallex in the Americas, and a hands-on partner to our People & Talent team on the issues that carry the most risk: terminations, workplace investigations, employee relations, and the policies that govern how 3,000+ people across 20+ markets work. You'll own US employment law directly and coordinate advice across other jurisdictions with our external counsel panel.

Because Airwallex operates through licensed entities in most of its markets, you'll also work on questions that a generalist employment lawyer rarely sees: contractor and EOR classification across borders, remote work and mobility exposure, and conduct and remuneration matters in regulated entities. This role suits someone who wants to build the playbooks and templates a scaling employment function runs on, not just answer tickets.

This role is based in San Francisco, New York, or Seattle.

Responsibilities:

Advise the People & Talent team and business leaders on the full employee lifecycle, including hiring, contracts and variations, performance management, accommodations, leaves, wage and hour compliance, and terminations.

Lead workplace investigations and sensitive employee matters end-to-end, working with the cross-functional People and Legal working group.

Draft, refresh, and own employment-related policies and templates.

Manage employment disputes, agency charges, and litigation, instructing and controlling external counsel and associated legal spend.

Coordinate multi-jurisdiction employment advice across APAC, EMEA and the Americas, including contractor and employer-of-record arrangements, cross-border remote work and mobility risk.

Advise on compensation, benefits, and equity matters in a private company context.

Who you areWe're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications:

J.D. degree (or foreign equivalent) and active membership in at least one US state bar (California, Washington, or New York preferred)5+ 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

The ability to translate complex legal and risk issues into clear, succinct, and actionable guidance for non-legal audiences

High motivation and the 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,…