Lipstick on a pig - make sure you know which one you'll be - Anonymous employee Airwallex Employee Review

2.0
Dec 3, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Aggressively growing organization, very good opportunities to touch many parts of the business regardless of your role.

Cons

The business has grown on the back of massive fundraising + the opportunities in China which have been well-captured but it has reached an inflection point. To scale, to capture and grow talent and to list successfully - all of these are challenges that are the biggest for the business & the current leadership team are not fit to address. A good way to summarize the sentiment above is that majority of the senior leaders/managers would not qualify or be successful in similar roles in other fast-growing companies. As such, these senior individuals are neither capable of building teams and functions to deliver on their goals - you'll see that high turnover is a recurring theme because Airwallex turns strong performers into questionable hires. To my original point (lipstick on a pig), the senior management team are aggressively hiring expensive and renowned talent from Tier 1 tech organizations, MBB consulting and very shiny schools - to provide the credibility and sheen required to push the business into the next phase. But it is clear that based on the foundation the business is built on, no number of MBAs or FAANG hires can change Airwallex's DNA. Worth noting that it's the lipstick hires who are getting plenty of resourcing and visibility so if you'll be a lipstick hire - make the most of it. Be wary though, stay long enough and the lipstick will become part of the pig.

Explore other reviews about Airwallex

5.0
Jul 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Love the incredibly fast pace and the massive growth -- very few companies are scaling at 80% YoY at a scale of >$1bn ARR, The leadership team and technical talent are brilliant.

Cons

Here in San Francisco, the company's still very much in a Series A stage-- that can be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. You just have to be willing to be scrapping and work hard.

5.0
Jul 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

High autonomy and agency. As a senior IC I have leadership's trust in driving my work, engaging with partner executives and generating new ideas and partnerships. Clear line of sight into how my work positively impacts the company. I can draw the line between my effort and that enabling a small or large part of our success. Diverse product and partner work. I work with large and small partners and across our entire product offering, which keeps my day to day fresh and diverse. Great people, all hard working, smart and well credentialed.

Cons

Global team makes for frequent night time calls, if something can't be handled over Slack. Hard driving. There's lots to do and big ambitions, so everyone is spread thin working on high priority/impact projects.

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