Kraken helps people own the power of their money. Founded in 2011, we're one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, now offering crypto, stocks, futures, staking, payments and more. Trusted by millions of institutions, professional traders, and consumers across 190+ countries.

Built on the belief that everyone should own the power of their money, Kraken has been a category leader in crypto since 2011. We've grown into a global financial platform offering crypto, stocks, futures, staking, payments and institutional infrastructure — all on a single foundation built for the future of finance.

Kraken

Equity / Stock Options

Bonus

Payward - the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout,  xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks - has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, built to advance an open, global financial system.


Before you apply, we encourage you to explore our 

 to understand what drives us and how we work.

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions across the globe. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services, with products built for both individual investors and institutional clients.


We're looking for a Head of Exchange Infrastructure to own the layer every Kraken product is built on: the matching engine, core infrastructure, third-party custody, the algo engine and the API engine. Kraken grew up as a set of vertically integrated products, each with its own engine and its own APIs. This role consolidates them into a single exchange stack that serves every product and every interface. You will lead a team of four to five product managers, partnered with an engineering manager. It is a senior, independent team, which means you get leverage quickly and you are expected to stay close to the work.

Own the product vision and roadmap for the exchange layer: matching engine, core infrastructure, third-party custody, algo engine and API engine

Lead and grow a team of four to five product managers, and set the bar for product craft across the layer

Lead the consolidation of multiple matching engines into one, starting with US derivatives, then international derivatives, then spot

Build interface-agnostic, so every product team and every interface can build on the same platform rather than their own

Define success metrics (p99 latency, throughput, uptime, resiliency) and hold teams accountable to them

Partner with engineering leaders across exchange and core infrastructure to sequence the migration without disrupting live markets

Partner with Risk and Credit Infrastructure so a client can hold one account and trade every product against it

Anticipate industry shifts and shape our platform to stay ahead

Align cross-functional teams (product, engineering, risk, compliance) around the exchange strategy

Senior product leader with experience in exchange, trading, or high-performance platforms

Experience managing and developing product managers, on a team senior enough to run without you in the room

Happy to be a player-coach. This team is independent, so you will own roadmaps and write specs yourself at times, not only review them

Proven ability to set product vision and translate it into a long-term roadmap

Strong understanding of matching engine and market data architecture, and the tradeoffs low latency forces

Experience building platforms for internal customers, with the judgment to tell a platform from a series of bespoke builds

Excellent communication skills — can influence technical and non-technical stakeholders

A passion for crypto markets, market structure, and building the next generation of infrastructure

Engineering background before moving into product, so you've built or operated high-performance systems yourself and not just specced them

Experience across both spot and derivatives venues, with the market structure differences that come with each

Time at a crypto exchange operating at comparable scale, volume and uptime expectations

Track record building platform roadmaps that interlock with adjacent product orgs rather than running in isolation

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Payward is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate the diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions, and unique perspectives that everyone brings to the table. We hire based on merit, seeking out people with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgeable about crypto.


We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.


As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, whether based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

Experience Requirement

Seniority Level

Kraken is seeking a Head of Exchange Infrastructure to lead the product vision and roadmap for its core exchange layer, including the matching engine and API engine. This senior leadership role involves managing a team of product managers and driving the consolidation of multiple matching engines into a single, high-performance stack. The position is fully remote and focuses on building scalable, low-latency financial infrastructure.

$177.4K – $395.1K • Offers Equity • Offers Bonus

Head of Exchange Infrastructure

Full Time

Build operating rhythms, reviews, and forums that keep the Pro org aligned and focused on priorities.

Lead and deliver cross-functional projects that don’t fit neatly into a single team but are critical to Pro’s success.

Support leadership in decision-making by framing issues, tracking KPIs, and surfacing gaps or risks early.

Maintain systems for reporting, business reviews, roadmap coordination, and cross-team initiatives.

Partner with leadership to scope and stand up new initiatives in Spot, Margin, Derivatives, or Infrastructure — from early concept through initial execution.

Contribute to high-impact materials (exec updates, all-hands, strategic memos) that provide clarity and visibility.

Act as the first line of intake for inbound requests, triage them effectively, and ensure accountability for follow-through.

Identify bottlenecks in how we operate and propose improvements that help the team scale more efficiently.

Use business intelligence and data to support PMs and leadership across Pro, cutting through competing priorities and surface the best opportunities.

Partner with Compliance and Legal teams to find ways to improve product experience.

5–7 years in BizOps, Product Ops, Strategy, Consulting, or similar high-leverage roles with measurable impact.

Strong project management skills — you can bring structure to ambiguity and drive initiatives from 0 → 1.

Comfortable with data: you can interpret dashboards, KPIs, and financial/operational metrics to drive insight.

Excellent communicator who can adapt across audiences — from execs to cross-functional ICs.

Highly organized, detail-driven, and biased toward follow-through and execution.

Self-starter who doesn’t wait for instructions — you create the roadmap when one doesn’t exist.

Experience collaborating across product, engineering, compliance, legal, finance, and marketing.

Belief in Kraken’s mission to accelerate financial freedom and inclusion through crypto.

Kraken is seeking a Principal, Business Operations - Pro to drive operational excellence and cross-functional alignment. You will lead critical projects, manage reporting systems, and use business intelligence to support leadership in decision-making. This role requires 5-7 years of experience in BizOps, Strategy, or Consulting and a strong ability to navigate complex, high-growth environments.

$110.4K – $220.8K • Offers Equity • Offers Bonus

Principal, Business Operations - Pro

 to own the people side of our M&A activity end to end — from first-pass diligence through close and integration. Reporting directly to our CPO, this is a high-pace, high-volume seat that needs someone who thrives on fast turnarounds and incomplete information. We're looking for an in-house operator with an analyst's mindset who can use AI to move fast through messy data rooms, but whose real edge is judgment knowing what risks matter and when to deviate.

Own the people's workstream of Payward's M&A activity end to end — from first-pass diligence through close and integration.

Build and own PX due diligence questionnaire (DDQ) including data requests and questions to the target, follow-ups and deeper-dive workshops

Crunch high-volume, low-structure data rooms — employment contracts, org data, comp and equity files, policies, claims history — using AI and automation to compress review cycles.

Filter signal from noise: translate hundreds of findings into a short list of flags scored against Payward's risk tolerance, with a clear recommendation attached to each.

Lead the drafting of the people-side deal mechanics: comp modelling, equity treatment, retention and earn-out structures, and deal-specific considerations that hold up in negotiation with founders.

Sit in the room with corp dev, legal, finance and PX leadership — leverage SMEs and push recommendations upward,defending them with data.

Act as PX program manager during integration after signing: support org design, levelling and comp harmonisation, retention execution, and Day 1 people readiness.

Turn each deal into reusable infrastructure and learnings — playbooks, DDQ templates, risk scoring, and automation that make the next deal faster.

8+ years across M&A people/HR diligence, integration, total rewards, or corp dev — with hands-on ownership of the people workstream on completed deals.

A track record of running multi-diligence processes in tandem, to a hard timeline: knowing what to prioritize or defer

Strong analytical depth — comfortable modelling comp, equity, dilution, retention cost and integration spend directly, not briefing someone else to do it.

Global/cross-border deal experience with multi-jurisdiction and/or regulatory change of control employment considerations.

Demonstrated use of AI and automation to review large document volumes, with judgement about where the model's output can and cannot be trusted.

Ability to make and communicate risk calls on incomplete information, and to state a position clearly to executive stakeholders.

Credibility in founder-facing negotiation conversations on comp, equity and retention structures.

Rigorous confidentiality instincts and comfort operating on live, undisclosed transactions.

High agency in ambiguity — deals move, scope shifts, and no one hands over a finished process.

Crypto, fintech or regulated financial services acquisition experience.

Experience integrating founder-led or early-stage teams into a larger platform.

Prior work building a diligence or integration playbook from scratch.

Payward is seeking an HR (People) M&A Lead to manage the people-side of M&A activities from diligence through integration. The role involves conducting PX due diligence, compensation modeling, and organizational design using AI and automation to optimize review cycles. The ideal candidate has 8+ years of experience in M&A HR diligence and total rewards.

HR (People) M&A Lead

 team, you’ll be responsible for executing M&A transactions that drive our strategic vision forward. Working closely with a cross-functional team of stakeholders, you’ll lead discussions with target leadership, negotiate key terms, coordinate due diligence, identify sources of risk, and drive deals to a timely closing. You bring a deep interest across financial services, especially in the crypto industry, a deep familiarity with M&A processes, strong financial modeling and valuation skills, and the ability to work fluidly across multiple high-priority initiatives.

Contribute shaping Kraken’s M&A, venture strategy and identifying high-value opportunities

Drive M&A, venture investments and develop recommendations that push initiatives forward

Spearhead the end-to-end deal process, from initial diligence to closing

Articulate key value drivers and considerations for potential M&A and venture opportunities in concise deal memos; build consensus across Leadership and the wider organization

Oversee the development of pro forma financial models and valuation analyses

Coordinate the due diligence process in concert with cross-functional stakeholders

Build and maintain an extensive network in the crypto and financial services industry to stay on top of key trends and developments

Contribute to enhancing the Corporate Development function by identifying opportunities to improve processes and mentoring team members

Additional duties and responsibilities as assigned

8+ years of experience in Corporate Development at a hyper-growth FinTech company or investment bank

Experience building pro forma financial models and valuation analyses (DCF, comparable multiples, accretion / dilution, etc.)

Deep familiarity with the M&A process (and venture), including legal matters and integration planning

Strong ability to drive consensus and coordinate process with a diverse group of cross-functional stakeholders in Legal, Finance, Product, Engineering, and beyond

An understanding of the global regulatory environment around crypto and financial services

Strong knowledge of and/or demonstrated curiosity for the cryptocurrency industry

Excellent analytical, problem solving, writing, and storytelling skills

Rigorous attention to detail and a reputation for “sweating the small stuff”

Technical background or strong knowledge of software/internet products and services

Strong network in crypto and / or traditional financial services markets

Deal Lead, Corporate Development

Payward is seeking a Deal Lead for its Corporate Development team to execute M&A transactions and venture investments. The role involves leading deal processes from diligence to closing, developing pro forma financial models, and managing cross-functional stakeholders to advance the company's strategic vision in the crypto and financial services sectors.

We are seeking a skilled & hands-on Senior Security Architect for Kraken Security Labs. Kraken Security Labs provides boutique-style, deeply technical internal security consulting on current and future products.

We don't merely provide high-level guidance but indeed get deeply embedded in the different engineering teams and do not mind hands-on work.

Our projects span from classical infrastructure security projects, over cryptography, web3, and complex Rust projects, to securing our next generation of AI products.

You will work in a small, highly technical team and collaborate with teams all across the company & world.

Design, review & verify robust security architecture in a heterogeneous environment

Conduct thorough security assessments and audits of existing architectures, recommending practical improvements

Stay updated with latest (blockchain) security trends, threats and mitigation techniques

Provide expertise to our blockchain teams, ensuring secure operational practices

Proven experience as an IT security expert, with a strong background in application security

Experience in security testing diverse application

Basic familiarity with security frameworks (OWASP, NIST, etc)

Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment

Strong communication and collaboration skills to effectively remotely work with stakeholders across the organization

Kraken is seeking a Staff Security Architect to join the Kraken Security Labs team. You will design and verify robust security architectures, conduct thorough assessments, and provide technical expertise across blockchain, web3, and Rust-based projects. This role requires a hands-on approach to infrastructure and application security in a dynamic, remote-first environment.

$127.2K – $254.4K • Offers Equity • Offers Bonus

Estimated Base Salary $127.2K – $254.4K • Offers Equity • Offers Bonus

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