Compliance Manager, Institutional & Markets

Building the Future of Crypto

Our Krakenites are a world-class team with crypto conviction, united by our desire to discover and unlock the potential of crypto and blockchain technology.

Kraken is a mission focused company rooted in crypto values. As a Krakenite, you'll join us on our mission to accelerate the global adoption of crypto, so that everyone can achieve financial freedom and inclusion.

The opportunity

This role sits at the institutional and markets end of Payward's compliance function. You'll own the compliance programme for a defined cluster of regulated activities covering obligations under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998, the Control of Borrowing (Jersey) Order, and tokenised asset issuance. You'll report to the UK Chief Compliance Officer and work closely with legal, product, and operations teams across Payward's institutional business.

• Tokenised Assets Compliance
  • Work with Group Compliance to evolve the compliance framework supporting Payward's tokenised asset and issuance activities, focusing on institutional grade structures and distribution models.
  • Oversee and control all AML and compliance activities, including the development and deployment of policies and procedures, client onboarding and supervision, transaction monitoring, AML risk mitigation, and adverse event reporting.
  • Support onboarding and oversight of institutional distribution partners (e.g., exchanges, brokers, platforms), ensuring that due diligence, KYC/AML expectations, and contractual frameworks are calibrated to the risk profile of large, regulated counterparties.
  • Monitor regulatory developments in tokenised securities and real world assets across relevant jurisdictions, primarily serving the JFSC, FCA, and international equivalents.
  • Advise on product design and structuring, drawing on experience from traditional financial instruments such as structured products, ETFs, ADRs, ensuring tokenisation models reflect underlying asset characteristics, investor rights, and distribution mechanics.
  • Provide compliance input throughout the product lifecycle-structuring, issuance, secondary market trading, ongoing disclosures-to maintain controls around transparency, investor eligibility, and market integrity.
• Institutional Business Advisory
  • Provide first line compliance support to Payward's institutional and markets facing teams covering new products, business development activity, institutional counterparty due diligence, and financial promotions in a non retail context.
  • Identify regulatory perimeter questions early and collaborate with legal and product to resolve them before they become blockers.
• Governance & Reporting
  • Prepare compliance metrics and reporting for board committees and the Jersey Board, including materials required by the JFSC.
  • Maintain policies, procedures, and controls documentation across the institutional and markets perimeter, aligned to group level frameworks.
  • Contribute to cross functional workstreams where trading venue or tokenised asset expertise is required.

Skills you should HODL

• Solid working knowledge of Jersey financial services law, including the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998, the Control of Borrowing (Jersey) Order, and the JFSC's regulatory framework for investment business and virtual asset service providers.
• Familiarity with the JFSC's approach to tokenised asset regulation and the wider virtual assets framework, or the ability to learn quickly on an evolving regulatory landscape.
• Experience running or contributing to a compliance programme in a regulated financial services business with institutional or wholesale markets exposure.
• Comfort with multi jurisdictional complexity, maintaining a full picture without losing precision on any individual regime.
• Ability to work with genuine ambiguity: making sound judgements when products are ahead of the regulatory framework.
• Strong written communication skills for committee papers, regulatory correspondence, and policy documentation.
• Self directed with clear escalation judgement, suitable for a lean high standards team.

Nice to haves

• Direct experience with tokenised securities, RWA issuance, or structured digital asset products.
• Prior experience engaging with the JFSC, responding to supervisory requests, participating in regulatory consultations, or managing onsite reviews.
• Exposure to MiCA, UK MiFID, or other trading venue regulatory frameworks relevant to cross border institutional business.
• Experience supporting multi jurisdictional regulatory engagement or contributing to regulatory consultations.

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.

As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind. Whether that's 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.