Chief Operating Officer, UK [Remote]

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.

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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.

Kraken is building the leading regulated crypto and payments platform in the UK. The UK is moving from MLR registration to a full FSMA authorisation regime, and we are moving with it. We have live authorisation workstreams with the FCA, a fast growing payments business spanning our EMI and institutional payments infrastructure, and an ambition to make the UK one of Kraken’s most important markets globally.

We are hiring a Chief Operating Officer to be the operational backbone of that transition. This is a hands on individual contributor role with unusual scope: you will own the operational running of the UK business including our EMI, Payward Services Limited, support our licensing workstreams through to authorisation, and get stuck into the special projects and growth initiatives that move the UK business forward. As the UK regime lands and the business scales, the role scales with it.

This is a role for someone early in a steep trajectory: an operator who has done the consulting to operating transition, is hungry for a remit that outstrips their years, and wants to build a regulated business from the inside at the exact moment the UK regime crystallises.

The opportunity

• Run day-to-day operations across UK entities, including EMI operations at Payward Services Limited: safeguarding, payment services requirements, operational risk and incident management, outsourcing and intra-group coordination, audit and regulatory readiness, and Board/ExCo/management reporting.
• Lead the operational work behind our FCA authorisation efforts, including crypto (CASP) authorisation and our MiFID scope application. Partner with Legal, Compliance, and the UK CEO to turn regulatory requirements into governance processes, controls, documentation, and evidence the FCA expects from an authorised firm.
• Serve as the operational counterpart to the FCA alongside Legal and Compliance: information requests, supervisory queries, incident notifications, and closing out follow-up actions. (Strategic FCA relationship ownership sits with the UK CEO — you ensure nothing operational slips.)
• Identify and execute growth opportunities for the UK business, prioritizing payments: scaling EMI and fiat rails, growing institutional and B2B payments, and landing commercial partnerships that expand our UK footprint.
• Own UK product operations and launch readiness, centered on payments (on/off-ramp, fiat funding rails) alongside consumer and institutional trading. Gate go-lives against regulatory and operational requirements, own financial promotions oversight (three lines of defence), and build the controls that let regulated products ship fast and scale.

What you bring

• 8-12 years of experience, with roots in strategy consulting (MBB, Big 4 strategy, or boutique) and a proven track record of operational execution in-house / in industry.
• Operated inside a scaling UK fintech, bank, or crypto firm in roles like special projects, chief of staff, operations strategy, or operations lead, with a track record of taking on scope beyond your title.
• Deep familiarity with the UK regulatory environment. You have operated inside an FCA regulated firm, ideally a MiFID investment firm, bank, or EMI, and you understand SMCR, safeguarding, financial promotions rules, Consumer Duty, operational resilience, outsourcing rules, and what supervision actually feels like.
• A track record of running complex cross functional programmes with no formal authority over the people involved, and of picking up work outside your job description because it needed doing.
• Structured and rigorous on governance and controls, but allergic to bureaucracy. You know the difference between a control that protects the firm and a process that slows it down.
• Excellent communicator across regulators, boards, engineers, and commercial partners.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, a broad remit, and a title that means ownership rather than headcount.
• This is an individual contributor role with executive scope. You measure yourself by what you ship and land, not by headcount, and that is exactly what excites you.

Nice to haves

• Payments fluency: you understand how money moves, whether from an EMI, a bank, a PSP, or a fintech building on payments rails, and you can go deep on funding flows, safeguarding, and payment operations without a translator.
• Crypto or digital assets experience, either in industry or through regulated product launches.
• Exposure to SMCR environments. As the UK business matures there is scope for this role to grow into greater formal responsibility.
• Experience supporting or leading an authorisation, licence application, or regulatory change programme end to end.
• Former founder, GM, or early operations hire at a fintech or crypto startup.

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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