Engineering Manager - Frontend - Krak

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.
We’re looking for a hands-on Engineering Manager to lead a cross-functional Consumer pod focused on building and scaling core Krak experiences. This leader will guide a team of Frontend (React / React Native) and Backend (Rust) engineers to deliver seamless, performant user experiences across Kraken’s primary consumer surfaces.
You’ll work closely with Product, Design, and other Engineering Managers to ensure Krak delivers exceptional UX, technical quality, and operational reliability. This role is an opportunity to shape high-impact, consumer-facing functionality used daily by a global user base.
The opportunity
Lead a cross-functional team of frontend and backend engineers responsible for core Krak consumer experiences.
Own the end-to-end UX for key Krak features across mobile and client platforms.
Guide the delivery of high-quality consumer applications, with a focus on usability, performance, and scale.
Partner with Product Managers and Designers to define and deliver high-impact features with measurable business and customer value.
Collaborate with other Engineering Managers and Tech Leads to maintain consistent engineering standards across services and client platforms.
Champion engineering excellence, maintainable architectures, and code quality.
Mentor engineers and foster a culture of technical growth, collaboration, and inclusivity.
Strengthen team organization and delivery using agile processes, project tracking, and engineering metrics (e.g., DORA, cycle time).
Skills You Should HODL
Proven experience leading engineering teams delivering customer-facing products at scale.
Experience managing combined frontend and backend engineering teams.
Deep technical background in React Native with a solid understanding of modern frontend architectures.
Strong cross-functional leadership, able to align frontend and backend efforts in a complex, multi-platform environment.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
Empathy for the customer and a passion for building intuitive, performant consumer experiences.
Experience building large-scale consumer or financial products.
Nice to haves
Background in systems design or distributed architectures.
Working knowledge of Rust (or similar languages such as Go or C++), and familiarity with async architectures, APIs, and microservices.
Experience in the payments and card domains.
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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