Airwallex

A high-growth startup with lots of pros!

I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Airwallex and I feel highly valued in my role. Definitely, management never asked anyone to write a false review. I write this review voluntarily and am happy to be contacted by Glassdoor.

The pros in a nutshell:

• Engineering driven company. Engineers are encouraged to have an entrepreneurial mindset. You are encouraged to drive the solutions design and be proactive to identify some gaps in the requirements, like in most high-growth startup companies. If you expect all requirements to be all fed, then this is not an ideal place.
• Work flexibility: Flexibility to work from home without any drama, and flexibility to adjust your working hours to adapt with your family commitments. You can be upfront about your needs and then discuss a mutual flexible option that works best for the company, the team, and yourself.
• Great pay (at or above market rates), with bonus stock options (equity).
• Fully stocked drinks, healthy snacks, healthy drinks, fruits, coffee, and others.
• Flat structure with a great autonomy and ownership.
• Great rooms for growth and for creating an impact within the team and across teams.
• Great coworkers, and in most cases you will see a no-ego culture here.
• If you show proactivity to make an impact beyond your job role, it will be appreciated. You will need to drive this though. In a sense, you need to own where you want to grow in your career.
• The management team in our Melbourne office have done an amazing job. They drive continuous improvement and a growth culture in the company, and they are doing their best to provide a safe culture where employees can communicate their feedback in a safe and supportive environment.
• Interviewers were transparent about what you can and cannot expect, and about their experience of working at this company. Just make sure you ask them these questions.
• New starters have a proper induction (i.e., there are rooms for improvement, but overall still quite solid). New starters are publicly recognised during the weekly company meeting. Different VP and department heads across different teams transparently share their vision, team's achievement, growth areas, and all the wins that we achieve as a company.
• Solid IT equipment for employees and great office facilities.

• The startup challenge is a fast-paced environment, which I believe is common in any high growth startup with top investors. If you expect all requirements to be all fed, then this is not an ideal place for you.

• Our engineering management team and HR are still working on improving some of our processes (i.e., engineering process and other general processes), so there are some growth areas in this space. They are constantly improving and getting better though, so I see this as an opportunity for employees to help drive the processes.

• I strongly feel that some of the recent negative comments here on Glassdoor are over-exaggerated, mostly by disgruntled employees (who I believe are the culture damagers in any company). Sadly, I happened to meet a few disgruntled employees when I happened to overhear their conversation on a very recent occasion. IMHO, this group of people always kept complaining anyway (or pretended to be busy with work) while many highly-driven members of the team are doing their best to deliver results and helping the company grow as a successful startup.

• Keep doing your best to make Airwallex a great place to work and continue improving our processes. I trust in your leadership at Airwallex and what the future of this company could be.

• Focus on hiring A players, those with strong "cultural fit", and an entrepreneurial driven mindset. Identify any potential red flags when hiring a new candidate. Don't put too much emphasis on a candidate's previous workplace, even if they have worked at some top Australian companies, and don't be afraid not to accept them if you see any potential red flags in their attitude. Instead, let's improve our recruitment process to "slightly relax" our technical interview requirements, and invest more in the cultural-fit interview. I'd suggest to involve people from different domains, i.e., product manager, UX designer, during the cultural fit interview with engineers.

• All the onboarding resources and the once-a-month onboarding session for new employees have definitely been useful. Thank you! In saying that, I believe we can improve our new starter induction by encouraging a shared responsibility from the team to provide an even better employee's onboarding experience.

• Empower some of your top engineers with some management training and interview-skills training, and help them to take on more leadership challenges within their role.

• Let's initiate some fun relaxing team building activities, where both management and non-management staff can be involved.