Head of Exchange Infrastructure

As Head of Exchange Infrastructure at Kraken (Payward), you own the layer every Kraken product is built on: the matching engine, core infrastructure, third-party custody, the algo engine, and the API engine. Kraken grew up as a set of vertically integrated products, each with its own engine and APIs. You will consolidate them into a single exchange stack that serves every product and interface. You lead a team of four to five product managers, partnered with an engineering manager, and stay close to the work while gaining leverage quickly.

What you'll do

• Own the product vision and roadmap for the exchange layer: matching engine, core infrastructure, third-party custody, algo engine, and API engine
• Lead and grow a team of four to five product managers, and set the bar for product craft across the layer
• Lead the consolidation of multiple matching engines into one, starting with US derivatives, then international derivatives, then spot
• Build interface-agnostic solutions so every product team and interface can build on the same platform rather than their own
• Define success metrics (p99 latency, throughput, uptime, resiliency) and hold teams accountable to them
• Partner with engineering leaders across exchange and core infrastructure to sequence the migration without disrupting live markets
• Partner with Risk and Credit Infrastructure so a client can hold one account and trade every product against it
• Anticipate industry shifts and shape the platform to stay ahead
• Align cross-functional teams (product, engineering, risk, compliance) around the exchange strategy

What you bring

• Senior product leadership experience in exchange, trading, or high-performance platforms
• Experience managing and developing product managers on a team senior enough to run without you in the room
• Willingness to be a player-coach: you own roadmaps and write specs yourself at times, not only review them
• Proven ability to set product vision and translate it into a long-term roadmap
• Strong understanding of matching engine and market data architecture, and the tradeoffs low latency forces
• Experience building platforms for internal customers, with the judgment to distinguish a platform from a series of bespoke builds
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Passion for crypto markets, market structure, and building the next generation of infrastructure

Nice to have

• Engineering background before moving into product, so you have built or operated high-performance systems yourself, not just specified them
• Experience across both spot and derivatives venues, with understanding of the market structure differences between each
• Time at a crypto exchange operating at comparable scale, volume, and uptime expectations
• Track record building platform roadmaps that interlock with adjacent product orgs rather than running in isolation

About Kraken (Payward)

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. Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions globally, offering spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services.