Building the Future of Open Finance

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 culture page to understand what drives us and how we work.

The team

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.

Payward's Audit & Risk function operates as an Integrated Assurance organization, bringing together Internal Audit and Enterprise Risk Management under a unified risk oversight strategy. The function spans Internal Audit, SOX Compliance, and Enterprise Risk Management across multiple regulated entities and jurisdictions. Internal Audit partners with co-sourced providers, maintains direct reporting lines to the Global and Local Audit Committees, and is building in-house assurance capability at the pace of a business that is acquiring and integrating new businesses across the globe.

The opportunity

You'll partner with Internal Audit leadership to run risk-based operational audits across the business, evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of controls across governance, regulatory, financial, and operational risk - with an immediate priority on post-acquisition integration as the business grows through acquisition. It's a global, multi-jurisdiction mandate, entity and region agnostic, and you'll direct specialist support wherever deep-technical depth is needed. If you want operational audit work with genuine breadth and immediate, high-visibility impact, this is it.

Responsibilities span the following areas:

• Operational & integration audit leadership
• Engagement & issue management
• Stakeholder engagement & reporting

What you bring

8+ years of experience in internal audit, risk management, or regulatory examination within financial services, fintech, or crypto

Strong generalist audit background -- proven ability to plan and lead audits across business, financial, operational, and regulatory processes

Experience auditing complex, regulated environments; exposure to post-acquisition or M&A integration is a strong plus

Multi-jurisdiction experience -- auditing or assessing controls across more than one regulatory regime, ideally with globally distributed teams

Ability to get up to speed quickly on unfamiliar business models and direct specialist support where deep-technical depth is required

Experience communicating findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders, including board or audit committee audiences

Leadership experience, including managing audit workstreams, engagement teams, and co-sourced specialists

Comfortable operating across multiple time zones, partnering with globally distributed audit and business teams

Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality

Nice to haves

Relevant certifications: CIA, CISA, CAMS, CFE, or equivalent

Prior M&A or integration audit, or transaction diligence, experience

Familiarity with crypto, fintech, or digital-asset business models

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.

Our commitment

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.

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