Senior Manager, Financial Crime Investigations & Intelligence

About the role

Airwallex, the AI-native financial operating system used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide, is hiring a Senior Manager, Financial Crime Investigations & Intelligence. You will lead proactive, complex and high-risk anti-money laundering and financial crime investigations across its global financial infrastructure, acting as an investigative subject-matter expert and operational lead. The role covers cross-border payments, corporate accounts, cards, FX and embedded finance, and is based in Singapore or Malaysia, five days per week.

Key responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end investigations into complex financial crime typologies involving cross-border payment flows, multi-currency corporate accounts, complex ownership structures, cross-product risks, KYB/UBO considerations and high-risk corridors.
• Oversee case intake, triage, prioritisation and assignment for special investigations, ensuring thorough resolution within agreed SLAs.
• Lead internal fraud and insider-threat investigations, partnering with Fraud, Infosec, People/HR, Employment Legal and senior management, and provide evidence-based findings and risk-based recommendations.
• Analyse layered international transactions across SWIFT, local clearing rails, card schemes and alternative payment methods to trace illicit funds, identify beneficial owners and uncover hidden counterparty networks.
• Provide analysis, suspect and typology recommendations, quality assurance and escalation support for SAR/STR cases, supporting MLROs in making final filing decisions.
• Translate findings into feedback for Risk, Data and Engineering teams to calibrate transaction monitoring rules and improve automated detection models.
• Develop and maintain financial-crime typologies, investigative intelligence and threat assessments, and turn them into control improvements, training and intelligence briefings.
• Partner with Transaction Monitoring, Onboarding and EDD, Sanctions, Fraud, Legal and regional MLROs to address systemic threats.
• Build and maintain investigative playbooks, analysis standards, typology context and case documentation, and quality-assurance frameworks.
• Support internal audits, independent reviews and regulatory inquiries, and guide, review and train investigators and analysts.

Required profile

• 8+ years of dedicated experience in AML/CFT investigations, financial intelligence or special investigations within cross-border payments, global fintech, merchant acquiring or international corporate and commercial banking.
• Deep understanding of cross-border payment mechanisms, FX, merchant acquiring and corporate entity structures, including complex shareholding, shell companies and beneficial ownership.
• Proven track record of independently conducting and documenting complex financial crime investigations, with support to the MLRO-led regulatory reporting process.
• Strong analytical mindset and exceptional written communication, including investigative narratives and SAR/STR drafting.
• Comfortable working in a high-growth fintech environment with competing priorities and tight deadlines.

Required skills

• Preferred: professional certification such as CAMS, CFE or an equivalent ICA diploma.
• Preferred: practical experience with data querying and visualisation tools such as SQL, Python, Tableau or network/link analysis software.
• Preferred: experience investigating financial crime risks in digital assets or crypto rails, or embedded finance/BaaS integrations.