Global Head of Middle Office

📋 Description

• • Kraken is at the forefront of the cryptocurrency revolution, driven by a world-class team united by a passion for discovering and unlocking the immense potential of crypto and blockchain technology. Our mission is to accelerate the global adoption of crypto, empowering everyone to achieve financial freedom and inclusion. For over a decade, this unwavering focus on our mission and core crypto ethos has attracted some of the brightest minds in the industry. We are a fully remote company with a diverse global workforce spanning over 70 countries and speaking more than 50 languages, fostering an environment of innovation and collaboration.
• • As the Global Head of Middle Office, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and scaling Kraken's institutional trading and lending operations. This leadership position is responsible for overseeing the critical post-trade processes, including settlement, reconciliation, and inventory management, ensuring operational excellence and institutional-grade standards.
• • You will be instrumental in building the operational backbone that enables Kraken to securely and efficiently scale its institutional flows. This involves owning the design, implementation, and continuous optimization of middle-office processes that support Kraken Prime, OTC, and lending activities. Your leadership will extend to managing a global team dedicated to trade capture, settlement, reconciliation, and reporting, ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and integrity across all operations.
• • A key aspect of this role is ensuring operational integrity and process excellence. You will be responsible for developing and enforcing robust standard operating procedures (SOPs), implementing comprehensive control frameworks, and establishing clear escalation protocols. Your focus will be on ensuring that all trade and settlement flows are executed with the highest degree of accuracy and efficiency, actively minimizing breaks, effectively managing exceptions, and maintaining exceptional data integrity across all relevant systems.
• • Furthermore, you will drive inventory optimization and balance management across our digital asset and fiat inventories. This involves close collaboration with Treasury and Trading teams to strategically optimize balance allocation, enhance collateral utilization, and improve settlement efficiency. By leveraging data-driven insights, you will aim to improve capital velocity and significantly reduce idle inventory, contributing directly to the financial health and operational agility of the institution.
• • Cross-functional partnership is essential for success in this role. You will work closely with front-office teams, Finance, and Technology to enhance existing systems, automate critical workflows, and strengthen internal controls. Aligning operational strategy with the evolving needs of our institutional clients, ensuring regulatory readiness, and supporting Kraken's broader growth roadmap will be paramount.
• • Building an operational environment that consistently meets and exceeds the expectations of top-tier institutional counterparties is a core objective. You will foster a culture of continuous improvement, heightened risk awareness, and unwavering accountability across the entire middle-office function. This includes championing best practices and ensuring that our operations are not only efficient but also resilient and compliant.
• • This role requires a deep understanding of the trade lifecycle management, settlement flows, and reconciliation processes within trading firms, OTC desks, or traditional financial institutions. You will leverage your proven ability to design and scale operational processes in fast-paced financial environments, with experience in establishing SOPs, risk controls, and automation frameworks.
• • Your expertise in counterparty settlement processes, custody flows, and reconciliation tools across both digital assets and traditional markets will be crucial. You must possess the ability to diagnose and resolve operational breaks quickly and accurately, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.
• • Experience managing digital asset or securities inventories across multiple venues and custodians, coupled with skills in optimizing liquidity, minimizing funding costs, and supporting balance sheet efficiency, will be highly valued. Your ability to align Trading, Risk, Treasury, Product, and Engineering functions to build scalable, low-friction infrastructure, supported by exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, is key.
• • Operating at the intersection of front-office innovation and robust risk management is a requirement. You will bring a deep understanding of the controls and governance necessary to serve institutional clients effectively. A blend of crypto-native understanding with traditional finance discipline is essential, enabling you to navigate both digital asset ecosystems and traditional financial frameworks with operational rigor and a forward-looking mindset toward crypto innovation.
• • This is an opportunity to lead a critical function at a rapidly growing, mission-driven company, contributing directly to Kraken's position as a leader in the global crypto market. You will shape the future of institutional operations in the digital asset space.