New opportunity

Engineering Lead / Manager, KYC

Airwallex · Singapore

About this role

Role Purpose: Lead the engineering direction for KYC systems to make user onboarding safer, faster, and more efficient at scale. Responsibilities: Build and improve automation and workflow systems to streamline registration approval and reduce manual effort. Develop AI- and data-driven solutions to identify user risk and prevent fraudulent or malicious activity. Partner with Product, Operations, Compliance, and Engineering teams. Raise the bar on architecture, reliability, performance, and engineering quality while mentoring team members. Required Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field. 5+ years of software engineering experience. Strong ability to translate complex business processes into technical solutions. Proficiency in backend or frontend development using Kotlin, Java, React, or TypeScript. Hands-on experience building scalable automation or workflow systems. Experience in architectural discussions, code reviews, and system reliability. Preferred Qualifications: Experience leading or mentoring engineers. Experience applying AI or machine learning to real-world problems, particularly in automation or risk detection. Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes) and CI/CD pipelines. Experience in fintech, payments, or compliance domains. Working Arrangement: This is an on-site role based in Singapore, requiring presence in the office five days a week.

For full details about this role, click “Apply on company site” to view the employer’s original posting.

Skills for this role

KotlinJavaReactTypeScriptMachine LearningAutomationWorkflow SystemsAWSGCPKubernetesCI/CDFintechRisk ControlSystem Architecture

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Get interview-ready for this role

A focused preparation guide, built around this job’s responsibilities and requirements.

✦ AI-generated guide
Preparation suggestions, not the employer’s actual interview questions. Always check the original posting for current requirements.
01

Understand the role

What matters most

  • Scaling KYC Automation and Workflow Systems

    The primary objective is to build and enhance systems that streamline registration approvals. You must focus on reducing manual operational effort while maintaining high reliability and performance to support the company's rapid growth.

  • Developing AI-Driven Risk Detection

    You are expected to leverage data and AI to identify user risk and prevent fraudulent activity. This requires translating complex compliance and risk requirements into technical solutions that balance security with user experience.

  • Cross-Functional Stakeholder Management

    Success depends on partnering with Product, Operations, and Compliance teams. You must be able to communicate technical constraints and requirements effectively to non-technical stakeholders to ensure alignment on business goals.

  • Engineering Leadership and Quality Assurance

    As a lead, you must raise the bar for engineering standards, including architecture, code reviews, and system scalability. Mentoring team members and fostering a culture of technical excellence is a core expectation.

Likely challenges to think through

  • Balancing Fraud Prevention with User Friction

    The role involves an inherent trade-off between blocking malicious actors and ensuring legitimate businesses can onboard quickly. Prepare to discuss how you design systems that minimize false positives and prevent over-blocking.

  • Operating in a High-Velocity, Ambiguous Environment

    The company values moving fast and making decisions with incomplete information. You may face challenges in maintaining system stability while rapidly iterating on features; prepare to demonstrate your decision-making framework under pressure.

  • Managing Global Stakeholder Expectations

    Working within a global team across time zones requires flexibility and strong communication. You may need to manage conflicting priorities from different regional compliance teams; prepare to explain how you prioritize tasks when faced with competing demands.

03

Practice your answers

Technical practice

Designing Scalable KYC Workflow Systems

What to coverDescribe how you would architect a workflow system to handle high-volume user onboarding. Focus on how you ensure reliability, handle state management for long-running approval processes, and maintain performance under load.

Integrating AI for Risk Detection

What to coverExplain your approach to incorporating machine learning models into a real-time KYC decisioning pipeline. Discuss how you balance model accuracy with latency requirements and how you handle model versioning or retraining in a production environment.

Managing Trade-offs in Fraud Prevention

What to coverDiscuss the challenge of balancing false positives versus false negatives in risk control. How do you design systems that prevent malicious activity without creating excessive friction for legitimate users?

Backend Architecture for Fintech Services

What to coverGiven the need for high availability in financial infrastructure, how do you approach system design for consistency and fault tolerance? Address how you would utilize cloud-native tools like Kubernetes to ensure service reliability.

Data-Driven Decisioning Infrastructure

What to coverHow would you design a system that processes streaming events to identify coordinated fraud rings? Discuss the role of data pipelines and database choices, such as graph databases, in detecting complex patterns.

Engineering Quality and CI/CD

What to coverWhat strategies do you implement to maintain high engineering standards while moving quickly? Explain your approach to CI/CD pipelines and automated testing to ensure code quality in a fast-paced environment.

Translating Business Requirements to Technical Solutions

What to coverProvide an example of how you have translated complex compliance or business requirements into a technical roadmap. Focus on how you ensure the solution is scalable and maintainable for the long term.

System Performance Optimization

What to coverDescribe a scenario where you identified a performance bottleneck in a high-throughput system. What metrics did you monitor, and what steps did you take to resolve the issue?

Behavioural practice

Mentoring and Team Growth

What to coverDescribe a time you mentored an engineer to help them reach the next level in their career. What specific actions did you take to support their growth while maintaining project delivery?

Decision Making with Incomplete Information

What to coverShare an example of a time you had to make a critical technical decision with limited information. How did you assess the risks, and what was the outcome?

Cross-functional Collaboration

What to coverTell me about a time you had to align Product, Operations, and Compliance teams on a technical direction. How did you manage competing priorities and ensure the final solution met everyone's needs?

Taking Ownership of Problems

What to coverDescribe a situation where you identified a significant issue that was outside your immediate scope but critical to the business. How did you take ownership and drive the resolution?

Adapting to Rapid Change

What to coverGive an example of a time when project requirements changed suddenly. How did you adjust your team's approach to ensure the project remained on track while maintaining quality?

02

Sharpen your knowledge

Topics to prepare

  • KYC and Compliance Infrastructure

    Study the regulatory requirements for Know Your Customer (KYC) processes in fintech. Exercise: Map out a standard user onboarding flow and identify where automated risk checks (e.g., identity verification, sanctions screening) can be integrated to reduce manual operational overhead.

  • Scalable System Architecture

    Review principles of designing high-throughput, reliable systems capable of processing millions of events. Exercise: Draft a high-level architecture for a real-time risk scoring service that balances low-latency decisioning with the need for complex data processing.

  • Engineering Leadership and Mentorship

    Focus on strategies for managing technical teams and raising engineering quality. Exercise: Prepare a plan for conducting effective code reviews and architectural design reviews that foster team growth while maintaining high performance and reliability standards.

Skills to revise

  • Automation and Workflow Design

    Gain hands-on experience with workflow orchestration tools. Exercise: Design a state machine or workflow logic that handles registration approval, incorporating automated triggers for manual review only when specific risk thresholds are exceeded.

  • AI/ML for Risk Detection

    Practice applying machine learning to identify fraudulent patterns. Exercise: Research how to implement a scoring model that evaluates user risk in real-time, focusing on how to handle the trade-off between false positives and false negatives in a payment context.

  • Cloud-Native Development (AWS/GCP/Kubernetes)

    Familiarize yourself with deploying and scaling services in cloud environments. Exercise: Create a CI/CD pipeline configuration that automates testing and deployment for a backend service, ensuring reliability and performance monitoring are built into the delivery process.

04

Your preparation checklist

  • Analyze KYC and Risk Platform Architecture

    Review your experience with high-throughput, adversarial systems. Prepare to discuss how you would design a scalable workflow engine that balances low-latency automated approvals with the need for rigorous compliance and fraud detection.

  • Prepare a Technical Case Study on Automation

    Draft a concise walkthrough of a past project where you replaced manual operational processes with automated workflows. Focus on the technical stack used (e.g., Kotlin, Java, or cloud-native tools) and the measurable impact on efficiency or risk reduction.

  • Develop a Mentorship and Leadership Philosophy

    Prepare specific examples of how you have raised engineering quality, conducted architectural reviews, and supported the career growth of team members. Be ready to explain your approach to managing a team in a fast-paced, on-site environment.

  • Formulate Strategic Questions for Stakeholders

    Prepare questions that demonstrate your understanding of the cross-functional nature of this role. Ask about the current friction points between Compliance and Engineering, or how the team prioritizes technical debt against new feature development in the Risk Platform.

  • Review AI and Data-Driven Risk Strategies

    Reflect on your experience applying machine learning to real-world problems. Be prepared to discuss how you would integrate ML models into a KYC pipeline to identify fraudulent activity while minimizing false positives for legitimate users.

AI-generated from the job information · Prepared Oct 19, 2026 (UTC)Useful preparation, not a guarantee of eligibility or an offer.

Availability last checked: 19 Oct 2026. Status can change after a check; confirm on the employer’s website. Report an issue · Our checking policy

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