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 Committee Chairs, and is building a financial crime and conduct assurance capability at the forefront of crypto and financial innovation.

The opportunity

You'll partner with Internal Audit leadership to run the global financial crime and conduct audit program, evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of controls across AML/CFT, sanctions, anti-bribery and corruption, market integrity, and conduct risk. This is a global, multi-jurisdiction mandate that is entity and region agnostic, with an immediate focus on our overseas operations and the regulatory regimes that govern them. Financial crime compliance will be a primary focus, and the role will also focus on conduct and market integrity risk. This is a hands-on role with real ownership over scope, stakeholders, and outcomes - you'll play a central role in how the Internal Audit function assesses some of the highest-visibility risks our business carries. If you want financial crime audit work where the landscape is genuinely current and your work has a real impact on how the business protects itself, this is it.

Responsibilities span the following areas:

Financial crime & conduct audit leadership

• Lead audits across financial crime compliance, including AML/CFT, sanctions, and anti-bribery and corruption, as well as conduct and market integrity risk, across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory regimes

• Perform risk assessments to identify key areas of exposure and prioritize audit coverage.

• Design and execute control testing across business and compliance processes, evaluating both design and operating effectiveness

• Assess conduct and market integrity controls, including market abuse and surveillance, personal account dealing and conflicts of interest, and consumer protection

• Shape and contribute to multi-year audit plans aligned to Payward’s financial crime and conduct risk profile across jurisdictions

• Lead AI-enabled auditing - apply generative AI, agentic workflows, and data analytics across the audit lifecycle to expand testing coverage, sharpen risk targeting, and improve efficiency, while retaining human ownership of judgment and conclusions

Engagement & issue management

• Lead multiple audit engagements concurrently, managing planning, fieldwork, and reporting end-to-end.

• Document audit findings, including control gaps and root cause, and draft clear, well-supported workpapers and reports

• Track and validate remediation of identified issues, escalating delays or gaps to Internal Audit leadership

• Contribute to the continuous improvement of audit methodologies and frameworks, and ensure conformance with the IIA Global Internal Audit Standards and the function's quality assurance requirements

• Lead engagement teams, including staffing and coordinating co-sourced resources, to ensure quality and timely delivery across audits

Stakeholder engagement & reporting

• Partner with stakeholders across Compliance, Legal, Risk, and Business teams to communicate audit results and advise on control improvements, while maintaining audit independence

• Present findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders, including senior management, the Audit Committee, and, where applicable, regulators

• Support regulatory examinations and enforcement-related follow-up relevant to financial crime and conduct

• Monitor evolving financial crime typologies, sanctions regimes, conduct expectations, and regulatory guidance across the jurisdictions relevant to Payward's business

What you bring

• 8+ years of experience in internal audit, or a combination of audit and financial crimes compliance roles, within financial services

• Direct experience assessing or auditing financial crime compliance programs, including AML/CFT frameworks

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

• Strong understanding of financial crime risks, including AML, sanctions, and anti-bribery and corruption

• Understanding of conduct and market integrity risk, including market abuse, personal account dealing, and consumer protection

• Proven experience executing audits end-to-end - planning, fieldwork, and reporting

• Ability to assess control design and operating effectiveness within complex organizations

• Experience communicating findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders

• Leadership experience, including managing audit workstreams and engagement teams

• Comfortable operating across multiple time zones, partnering with globally distributed compliance, risk, and audit 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: CAMS, CIA, CFE, or equivalent

• Familiarity with crypto, fintech, or digital asset financial crime typologies

• Familiarity with audit management platforms such as AuditBoard or Workiva

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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