Airwallex
Airwallex Leadership & Management
Frequently Asked Questions
Airwallex managers are expected to combine high performance expectations with regular coaching, clear communication and continuous career development. Rather than acting primarily as task managers, they help employees connect their work to company priorities, provide actionable feedback and support long-term career growth through structured development conversations. This approach is reinforced through leadership training, transparent career frameworks and performance systems designed to help employees succeed as the company continues to scale globally.
- Managers provide clarity through goals and feedback: Managers work with employees to translate company priorities into team and individual objectives using the company's OKR framework. Regular one-on-one meetings, ongoing feedback and coaching conversations help employees understand expectations, remove blockers and stay aligned with business priorities throughout the year rather than waiting for formal review cycles.
- Career development is an ongoing partnership: Airwallex managers support employees through twice-yearly performance reviews, Individual Development Plans (IDPs) and Career Progression Pathways that clearly define the skills and competencies required for advancement. Internal engagement surveys show 88% of employees had a manager-led growth discussion during the previous six months, demonstrating that career development is an expected part of the manager-employee relationship rather than an occasional conversation. One employee shared that “my manager genuinely invests in my growth,” reflecting the coaching-focused approach many employees experience.
- Coaching is grounded in the Operating Principles: Performance discussions evaluate both business outcomes and how employees demonstrate Airwallex's Operating Principles. This gives managers a consistent framework for recognizing strong performance, providing constructive feedback and helping employees develop behaviors that support long-term success across the organization.
- Managers receive leadership training too: Airwallex invests in manager effectiveness through structured development programs such as Airwallex Elevate, role-specific enablement and self-paced learning through the company's internal learning platform. The Rise program further helps individual contributors build leadership capabilities before moving into management, strengthening the leadership pipeline across the organization. Internal engagement surveys also show continued improvements in manager and performance management scores, reflecting ongoing investment in leadership quality.
- External signals:
- Leadership: Glassdoor employees frequently recognize supportive managers who provide meaningful feedback while giving employees autonomy to own their work. (Glassdoor)
- Management: Comparably employee feedback reflects positive perceptions of leadership quality and communication across the organization. (Comparably)
- Employer reputation: Built In's workplace profile highlights Airwallex's investment in employee development, career growth and people leadership as part of its employer brand. (Built In)
Bottom line: Airwallex managers lead by setting clear expectations, coaching employees through regular feedback and actively supporting career growth. Combined with structured leadership development, transparent career frameworks and strong communication practices, managers are expected to help employees succeed both in their current roles and throughout their long-term careers.
Airwallex emphasizes transparent, consistent communication so employees understand not only what the company is trying to achieve but also why those priorities matter. Leaders reinforce strategic direction through company-wide forums, clear performance frameworks, manager conversations and regular opportunities for employees to provide feedback, helping teams stay aligned as the business continues to grow internationally.
- Strategy is translated into measurable goals: Company priorities are cascaded into divisional and team Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), giving employees clear, measurable expectations that connect day-to-day work with broader business objectives. This structured planning process helps teams understand how individual contributions support the company's long-term strategy.
- Frequent communication keeps employees aligned: Leaders regularly share updates through Global All Hands, regional town halls, leadership Q&A sessions and company communication channels. These forums provide visibility into company performance, product priorities, AI initiatives and strategic direction while giving employees opportunities to ask questions directly to senior leaders. One employee shared that “leadership does a good job explaining where we're going and why,” highlighting the company's emphasis on transparency.
- Managers reinforce expectations throughout the year: Rather than relying solely on formal reviews, managers regularly discuss priorities during one-on-one meetings and ongoing coaching conversations. Twice-yearly performance reviews further align employee outcomes and behaviors with Airwallex's Operating Principles, creating consistent expectations around both results and how work is accomplished.
- Employee feedback strengthens communication: Airwallex regularly measures employee sentiment through engagement and pulse surveys, using the results to improve leadership communication, manager effectiveness and organizational alignment. Feedback from these surveys helps shape future communication strategies and reinforces the company's commitment to two-way dialogue rather than one-way updates.
- External signals:
- Communication: Comparably employee feedback highlights leadership communication and organizational transparency as strengths of the employee experience. (Comparably)
- Employee experience: Indeed reviews frequently mention that employees have visibility into company priorities and opportunities to communicate with leadership. (Indeed)
Bottom line: Airwallex leaders communicate expectations through clear goals, frequent company updates, ongoing manager conversations and continuous employee feedback. By connecting strategic priorities to everyday work and encouraging open dialogue, the company helps employees understand how their contributions support long-term business success.
Airwallex leaders provide strategic direction by combining a clear long-term vision with measurable business priorities, regular communication and disciplined execution. As the company expands globally, leaders consistently connect day-to-day work with the broader mission of transforming global financial infrastructure, ensuring employees understand how their individual contributions help drive the company's continued growth and innovation.
- A clear long-term mission guides decision-making: Airwallex's leadership team consistently reinforces the company's mission to build the global financial infrastructure that enables businesses to operate anywhere in the world. Strategic priorities are grounded in this vision, helping employees understand why the company invests in new markets, AI capabilities and product innovation.
- Goals are connected to measurable business outcomes: Leaders translate strategic priorities into company and team OKRs while sharing key business metrics, product milestones and commercial progress through quarterly Global All Hands and regional updates. This gives employees visibility into how their work contributes to revenue growth, customer expansion and long-term company objectives.
- Transparency builds confidence during growth: Leadership regularly shares updates on company performance, product roadmaps and major business initiatives while encouraging employees to ask questions through live Q&A sessions and internal communication channels. Internal engagement surveys show continued improvements in leadership communication, reflecting ongoing investment in helping employees understand both current priorities and future direction. One employee noted that “you always understand how your work fits into the bigger picture,” illustrating the company's focus on strategic alignment.
- Operating Principles turn strategy into action: Airwallex's Operating Principles provide a consistent framework for decision-making across the organization. Leaders reinforce these principles through performance reviews, coaching conversations and business planning, helping employees translate high-level strategy into everyday execution while maintaining consistent expectations across global teams.
- External signals:
- Industry recognition: Forbes has included Airwallex in its Cloud 100, reflecting the company's position as one of the world's leading private cloud businesses. (Forbes)
- Business momentum: Coverage from leading financial publications has highlighted Airwallex's international expansion, revenue growth and continued investment in global financial infrastructure, reinforcing confidence in the company's long-term strategic direction. (The Wall Street Journal; Bloomberg)
Bottom line: Airwallex leaders provide direction by clearly communicating the company's long-term vision, translating strategy into measurable goals and maintaining transparent communication as the business grows. Through consistent messaging, measurable objectives and strong Operating Principles, employees have a clear understanding of where the company is headed and how their work contributes to achieving that vision.
Airwallex's Candidate Tradeoffs
If you’re weighing whether Airwallex is the right fit, these are the core tradeoffs to consider.
- Airwallex emphasizes managers developed through formal training to ensure consistency and strong leadership fundamentals, though that approach prioritizes standardized management practices over highly individualized styles.
Airwallex Employee Perspectives
I’m passionate about building a strong, engaged team at Airwallex and supercharging the professional growth of every team member. So, I invest a lot of effort into interviewing every candidate while maintaining a high bar for talent. Across the team, I’m also continually fostering a strong team culture of ownership, autonomy, and psychological safety.
As I reflect on the trajectory that Airwallex has had, it’s clear to me that we wouldn’t be where we are without our people. In the last nine years, growing as a CEO alongside Airwallex has been a journey for me, and I hope all who join our team have a similarly meaningful experience of personal and professional growth.
Nothing is more important to me than our people. I want Airwallex to be a company where people are inspired to do the most impactful work of their careers and to have fun and be rewarded for doing it. We have had some missteps in this area in the past, as many start-ups do.
Looking forward, I want to double down on our commitment to empower our employees and highlight some of the mistakes we made in the hope it will help other startups to do things differently.
In our early years, we often hired on experience alone, but over time we learned that intellectual curiosity and merit were far stronger indicators of success in a company that is rapidly innovating. We also under-invested in our people and talent team – a strategic error that took us several years to rectify as we sought to build a dynamic culture and nurturing employee experience. This hurt us as we didn’t respond quickly enough to employee pain points while building our business at a rapid pace.
In the past two years, our company has matured in many ways. We’ve invested heavily in our people and talent team to help build a positive and thriving culture for our 1600+ employees. I’ve been consistently impressed by the ambitious talent we have hired and their ability to digest complex problems and propose creative solutions that vastly improve legacy approaches.
The company’s most recent H1 2024 employee survey saw 85 percent engagement and 92 percent sense of purpose scores – our highest yet, with a 92 percent participation rate across the company. It’s a promising sign of our actions to date. This has included reinvigorating our team-building events and redesigning our local and global town halls to provide regular updates on our business to help employees understand how their work relates to our business strategy. We have introduced more fireside chats and “ask me anything” sessions with myself and other global leaders to encourage transparency and connectedness, and these actions continue to evolve along with our culture.
Our score on performance management is also on the uptick at 89 percent – a positive sign of how manager training launched earlier this year is helping our people leaders engage more effectively with their teams. Growth and development scores are holding steady at 80 percent as we continue to build a more structured approach to mid-year and annual reviews to focus on immediate feedback and long-term career development for employees.
The below chart tracks our employee engagement score globally over the past 18 months.
We also remain focused on the wellbeing of our employees. Non-negotiables for us include healthcare, mental wellness, and volunteer leave. In addition, every employee has equity in the business as we believe in rewarding everyone for what we’re collectively building. As we’re growing rapidly and geographically distributed among 23 offices globally (including Australia and Singapore), we’ve also established operating principles that define who we are and how we work together towards our goals.
As we seek to hire an additional 400 employees over the coming months, we are looking for people who add to our culture, and not just fit in. We must be better every day so we can continue to deliver on our mission to help businesses thrive. And I’m very much aware that we can’t do that without our number one asset – our people.
When I read some of our employees’ stories about how Airwallex has allowed them to pivot their careers, I see how our culture has grown roots. The sense of optimism, curiosity, determination and resilience in our people is clear and it’s these two quotes in particular that resonate with me:
This is a reflection of the company we are building and as we scale, our culture will continue to build one person at a time, one win at a time. We are building the global economic infrastructure that will empower businesses of all sizes to grow beyond borders.
As employees build their careers at Airwallex, we press ahead with technology at our core, building infrastructure and applications to empower businesses to operate anywhere, anytime, allowing entrepreneurs, business builders, makers and creators to access opportunities in every corner of the world.
The opportunity to build a durable impact on the global economy by being part of team Airwallex is immense. I hope the investments we are making in people and culture allow employees to do some of the most rewarding and impactful work of their lives.
Airwallex Employee Reviews
What People Are Saying About Airwallex
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Strategic Vision & Planning: Leadership consistently positions the company as a unified global financial infrastructure and embedded finance platform, tying products across the “unified lifecycle of money.” Clear geographic priorities, a licensing‑first moat, and stated financial targets indicate a long‑term plan.
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Strong Execution: Concrete actions such as establishing a U.S. HQ, acquiring MexPago for Mexico entry, and naming new expansion markets demonstrate follow‑through on strategy. Public milestones around scale and a path to profitability reinforce disciplined growth.
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Open & Transparent Communication: Leaders repeat the mission across channels, publish operating principles, and share updates that connect roadmap, markets, and capital plans. Clear statements on staying private near term amid speculation help frame expectations.
Airwallex's Benefits
Defined policies promoting a professional, respectful workplace
Defined values and mission statements
Documented operating principles
We have 12 operating principles
Documented policies and procedures to protect employee privacy and data
Engineering team utilizes pair programming
Hosts in-person all-hands meetings
Hosts in-person revenue kickoff meetings
Implements team-based strategic planning
Leadership is transparent and communicative
Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities
Open office floor plan to encourage communication and collaboration
Prioritizes mission-driven work in decision-making processes
Prioritizes real-world impact of work in decision-making processes
Promotes a strong in-person office culture
Uses an OKR operational model to clearly define goals and priorities
