Senior Manager, Performance Marketing, SEM

About Airwallex Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 676,000 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 to see it in full. 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 Senior Manager, 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. • 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. • Develop playbooks and best practices for global and regional SEM teams. • Partner with platform reps to stay ahead of algorithm updates, betas, and emerging trends. • Drive operational excellence through consistent QA, documentation, and performance review cadences. 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: • 8+ years of experience in SEM or performance marketing, with proven success driving measurable growth and ROI. • Strong expertise managing large-scale multi-region paid search programs (Google + Microsoft). • Experience optimizing for B2B SaaS or fintech pipelines with full-funnel visibility (from lead to closed-won). • Hands-on familiarity with Marketo, Looker, SQL, Salesforce, and offline conversion tracking workflows. • Demonstrated analytical strength — comfortable with bid modeling, forecasting, and performance attribution. • Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills. • Preferred: Multi-lingual and particularly Mandarin or Cantonese • Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Economics, Data Analytics, or related field (MBA a plus). Preferred qualifications: • Experience building global SEM frameworks that scale across markets. • Knowledge of multi-touch attribution (MTA), MMM, or incrementality testing. • Exposure to AI-driven ad copy generation or creative automation systems. • Familiarity with SEO/SEM alignment strategies to maximize paid–organic synergy. • Strong relationship with platform partners (Google, Microsoft) for co-marketing and innovation programs. 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.