Lead, Payments/Scheme Economics

The role

You will own the integrity and management of payment costs, starting with card scheme fees and interchange across Visa and Mastercard. You will translate network rules into system configurations and financial outcomes to ensure accurate cost reflection across systems.

What you will do

• Own scheme economics and rule interpretation across card schemes.
• Translate scheme bulletins, operating regulations and fee schedules into requirements.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to ensure payment cost calculations reflect network rules.
• Establish governance, testing and controls across scheme configurations.
• Build models and analytics to create visibility into unit economics and margin drivers.
• Identify and execute opportunities to improve payment economics.
• Translate payment economics into recommendations for pricing and product design.
• Partner with Product, Engineering and Data to strengthen cost engines and automated controls.
• Serve as the escalation point for scheme pricing and rule-related questions.

Required qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant experience in payments, acquiring, issuing, card networks, payment infrastructure or a related field.
• Deep knowledge of card payment economics, particularly Visa and Mastercard interchange, scheme fees, transaction qualification and network rules.
• Strong ability to operationalise complex payment rules by translating fee schedules and network requirements into system logic, configurations and controls.
• Experience with payment cost systems and controls, including interchange tables, scheme fee logic, BIN-based rules, transaction attributes or similar payment configurations.
• Strong analytical and quantitative capabilities, including experience working with transaction-level data, economic modelling and reconciliation of expected versus actual payment costs.
• Strong commercial judgment, with the ability to connect detailed payment mechanics to pricing, product decisions and margin optimisation.
• Exceptional attention to detail and ownership.
• Strong cross-functional execution, with the ability to work effectively across Product, Engineering, Finance, Data, Operations and external payment partners.

Nice to have

• Experience expanding scheme economics expertise across local payment methods and broader payments cost bases.
• Experience building scalable payment cost infrastructure, automated controls, dashboards or advanced analytics.
• Experience working directly with Visa, Mastercard or other payment networks and partners.

About the company

Airwallex is an AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. It provides financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.