Associate Director, Performance Marketing, SEM

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the only unified payments and financial platform for global businesses. Powered by our unique combination of proprietary infrastructure and software, we empower over 150,000 businesses worldwide – including Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more – with fully integrated solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, spend management and treasury, to embedded finance at a global scale.

Proudly founded in Melbourne, we have a team of over 1,800 of the brightest and most innovative people in tech across 26 offices around the globe. Valued at US$6.2 billion and backed by world‑leading investors including Visa, Airtree, Blackbird, Sequoia, DST Global, Greenoaks, Salesforce Ventures, Lone Pine, and Square Peg, Airwallex is leading the charge in building the global payments and financial platform of the future. If you’re ready to do the most ambitious work of your career, join us.

Attributes We Value

We hire successful builders with founder‑like energy who want real impact, accelerated learning, and true ownership. You bring strong role‑related expertise and sharp thinking, and you’re motivated by our mission and operating principles. You move fast with good judgment, dig deep with curiosity, and make decisions from first principles, balancing speed and rigor.

You're humble and collaborative; turn zero‑to‑one ideas into real products, and you “get stuff done” end‑to‑end. You use AI to work smarter and solve problems faster. Here, you’ll tackle complex, high‑visibility problems with exceptional teammates and grow your career as we build the future of global banking. If that sounds like you, let’s build what’s next.

About the team

The Marketing team at Airwallex drives brand awareness and customer engagement through innovative and strategic campaigns. We work to communicate the value of our financial solutions, attract new customers, and strengthen relationships with existing ones. By leveraging data‑driven insights and creative strategies, we ensure Airwallex stands out in a competitive market. Our team is passionate about telling the Airwallex story and supporting the company's growth and success.

What you’ll do

We’re looking for a strategic, analytical, and deeply experienced SEM leader to own and scale our global paid search program.

As the Associate Director, Performance Marketing (SEM), you’ll lead the strategy, investment, and execution of search engine marketing across Google and Microsoft Ads. You’ll manage a multi‑million‑dollar budget, define our SEM growth roadmap, and partner closely with product marketing, regional marketing, and analytics to drive measurable business outcomes — from lead generation to revenue contribution.

This role is ideal for someone who can operate both strategically and tactically : designing frameworks for growth, mentoring regional and channel specialists, and ensuring our paid search programs deliver sustainable ROI across multiple regions and audiences.

This role is based in San Francisco.

Responsibilities :

• Own the global SEM strategy, setting the vision for how paid search drives customer acquisition, lead generation, and pipeline growth across segments (SMB, mid‑market, enterprise).
• Develop and execute short‑and long‑term SEM growth plans, balancing efficiency (LTV : CAC) with scale.
• Partner with Global Performance Marketing Strategy, Product Marketing, and Regional Leads to localize SEM campaigns for each market’s commercial priorities.
• Manage annual and quarterly budget planning, pacing, and forecasting for paid search investments.
• Serve as the SEM thought leader, identifying innovation opportunities in automation, AI bidding, audience layering, and creative testing.
• Oversee campaign structure, keyword strategy, bidding models, and creative optimization across Google and Microsoft Ads.
• Implement testing frameworks (ad copy, landing pages, audiences, match types) to continuously improve CTR, CVR, and pipeline conversion.
• Partner with Analytics and Data teams to ensure end‑to‑end visibility into ROI, pipeline contribution, and attribution across campaigns.
• Drive adoption of value‑based bidding (VBB) and audience‑first approaches (RLSA, Customer Match, CRM‑based targeting).
• Ensure strong campaign hygiene, naming conventions, and tracking governance (UTMs, conversion imports, offline events).
• Collaborate with Product Marketing and Content to align messaging, creative, and offers with product value propositions.
• Partner with Lifecycle and Growth Product teams to build cohesive acquisition‑to‑activation journeys.
• Work with Finance and RevOps on pacing, forecasting, and ROI analysis to guide data‑driven budget allocation.
• Align with Sales and Regional Marketing to ensure SEM efforts support pipeline coverage and demand generation goals.
• Manage and mentor SEM managers or specialists, fostering a culture of experimentation, precision, and data‑driven decision‑making.
• Develop playbooks and best practices for global and regional SEM teams.
• Partner with agency and platform reps to stay ahead of algorithm updates, betas, and emerging trends.
• Drive operational excellence through consistent QA, documentation, and performance review cadences.
• Candidates should bring deep expertise in SEM platforms, analytics, and marketing data systems.

Who you are

We're looking for people who meet the minimum requirements for this role. The preferred qualifications are great to have, but are not mandatory.

Minimum qualifications :

Preferred qualifications :

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.

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. If you are approached by someone claiming to represent Airwallex, please verify with our team.

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