Lead Total Rewards Partner

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 TikTok, 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 https://www.airwallex.com/en-us/operating-principles to see it in full.   HOW YOU'LL MAKE IMPACT Total Rewards is central to how Airwallex attracts, motivates and retains talent across the Americas. As the first Total Rewards team member based in the region, you'll build the operating model for Americas rewards while partnering with a small, globally distributed team. - Own the Americas Total Rewards program across the US and Canada, Brazil and Mexico, with end-to-end responsibility for compensation, benefits design and equity programs. - Lead compensation planning, benchmarking and pay decisions, including salary structures, geographic differentials, market positioning, merit and bonus cycles, and offer guidance. - Design benefits programs and lead plan renewals, broker negotiations and transition project management with local People Operations partners, balancing employee value, cost and regional requirements. - Partner with the global Total Rewards team on US stock plan administration, including RSUs, ISOs, ESPP mechanics, vesting, taxation, grant execution, plan governance and clear employee communications. - Lead global and regional Total Rewards projects, including the Americas rollout of the equity framework and IPO-readiness initiatives, from scoping and design through stakeholder alignment and implementation. - Use market data, benchmarking and financial modeling to make recommendations, influence decisions and translate complex analysis for leaders, managers and employees. - Partner closely with Talent Acquisition, People Partners, Payroll, Finance, Legal, Equity and executive leadership on compensation, organization decisions, systems, equity budgets, compliance and strategy. - Build practical processes and documentation for Americas Total Rewards while working independently across time zones and helping establish a local operating model. You'll work from our San Francisco office Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR ESSENTIALS - 10+ years of experience in total rewards, compensation or benefits, including experience supporting employee populations across the Americas. - Experience owning or building a complete Total Rewards program spanning compensation, benefits and equity. - Experience designing benefits programs and managing plan renewals, including broker and insurance carrier negotiations; hands-on benefits administration isn’t the focus of this role. - Strong compensation analytics capability, including market benchmarking, salary range architecture, geographic pay differentials, compensation cycles, modelling and projections. - Experience making and communicating compensation decisions with senior leaders, People Partners, recruiters and employees. - Working knowledge of US equity compensation and stock plan administration, including RSUs, ISOs, ESPP, vesting mechanics and the ability to explain these concepts plainly to non-specialists. - Experience at a late-stage private, pre-IPO or recently public company, particularly through changes to an equity program or increased governance requirements. - A track record of leading complex Total Rewards projects from design through implementation, bringing stakeholders with you and influencing without formal authority. - Strong business partnering, judgement and communication skills, with the confidence to challenge decisions when they don’t align with strategy, data or compliance requirements. - A builder mindset and the ability to work independently across time zones when there isn’t an established local playbook. PREFERRED - Experience supporting multi-region Total Rewards programs where the global framework is set outside your own time zone. - Familiarity with compensation, equity and HR systems such as Carta, Shareworks, BambooHR or Workday. - Experience using survey and benchmarking sources such as Radford, Compensia, Mercer or Aon. - Experience with 401(k), ERISA, US pay transparency, benefits compliance or related US rewards requirements. - Experience supporting IPO readiness, equity plan governance, tax reporting or SEC-related considerations. - Experience building a Total Rewards function or major program from the ground up in a high-growth technology, fintech or payments company. YOU'LL THRIVE HERE IF - You're comfortable owning the roadmap yourself. - You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway. - You enjoy working closely with people across multiple countries and time zones as part of one connected, global team, including flexing your hours occasionally to make that connection work. - You connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details. - You come to the table with a point of view, not just a problem. LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR TEAM People and Talent is where the people infrastructure of a genuinely global company gets built. Our company is growing fast across multiple regions, hiring in highly competitive markets, while many of the systems and programs themselves are still being designed. That means the job is not to run established processes well — it is to define what great looks like for a global fintech at this stage of growth, and then build it. This is a team for the ambitious who want the resources and scope of a scaled business combined with the creative latitude of one still being shaped. If you want to influence how a truly global company hires, grows, and builds a talent dense organization, this is where people work becomes company-building work. APPLICANT SAFETY POLICY: FRAUD AND THIRD-PARTY RECRUITERS To protect you from recruitment scams, please be aware that Airwallex will not ask for bank details, sensitive ID numbers (i.e. passport), or any form of payment during the application or interview process. All official communication will come from an @airwallex.com http://airwallex.com email address. Please apply only through careers.airwallex.com http://careers.airwallex.com or our official LinkedIn page. Airwallex does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Airwallex will not pay any fees to search firms/recruiters if a candidate is submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless an agreement has been entered into with respect to specific open position(s). Search firms/recruiters submitting resumes to Airwallex on an unsolicited basis shall be deemed to accept this condition, regardless of any other provision to the contrary. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.