Data Center Operations Engineer

As a Data Centre Operations Engineer at Kraken (Payward), you join the Infrastructure Operations team responsible for managing the entire network and compute infrastructure for one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges. This is a hands-on role critical to Kraken's success, where you will solve complex infrastructure problems in a sustainable way. This role requires onsite work in the New York/New Jersey area.

What you'll do

• Perform expert preventive and corrective on-site maintenance on critical exchange infrastructure
• Install and configure complex server and networking systems
• Provide comprehensive on-site facility support, including installation, decommissioning, and break/fix work
• Manage contractors, subcontractors, and vendors to ensure compliance with site procedures
• Maintain site-level asset accuracy, documentation, and ITAM and NetBox (IPAM, DCIM) updates, ensuring all documentation and rack layouts remain accurate, audit-ready, and traceable
• Support financial and capacity planning through cost projections and renewal tracking
• Lead or assist in capacity planning to maintain adequate spare capacity and plan timely backfills
• Assume on-call responsibilities and duties per schedule and travel as needed to support physical data centres and office locations
• Monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot physical infrastructure, including on-call and travel duties as required

What you bring

• 3+ years of experience in data centre operations in a highly security-focused environment
• 3+ years of experience working in a large-scale data centre environment
• Experience with power, cooling, and airflow management of physical devices
• Basic knowledge of IP addressing and subnet/gateway configuration
• Demonstrated accountability for site or system ownership in a large-scale environment
• Physical network work skills: precise cabling and patching to a port map, choosing the right optics and cables, and ordering and removing cross-connects with colocation providers
• Change and access control experience: raising change tickets and working within maintenance windows, site-access tickets, escorting visitors, and managing badge and door-controller faults
• Logistics experience: inbound shipment tickets, loading-bay handoffs, and shipping kit between sites
• New-site build-out experience: planning and executing new site installs, including rack layouts, patching and power plans, quote checks, and incident reports
• Multi-region collaboration capability across the US, EU, UK, and APAC
• Strong documentation discipline and ability to maintain a single source of truth for assets, capacity, and dependencies
• Understanding of financial planning or forecasting in an operational context
• Ability to collaborate across teams and regions with transparency and professionalism
• Ability to perform under pressure with high attention to detail
• Physical capability to lift more than 25 kg

About Kraken (Payward)

Kraken, founded in 2011, is one of the world's longest-standing cryptocurrency platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions globally. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services for both individual and institutional clients. Kraken is part of Payward, which has spent the last 15 years building a modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platform.