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    KrakenTech, Financial Services · 101-1,000BeachScore 79%

    Executive Search Lead

    PeopleLeadFull-timePosted todayNew

    Salary

    $127k–$254k

    Posted on the listing

    Location

    Work from anywhere

    Company policy, verified by Jeff

    Time zone

    Responsiveness to candidates and executives across all time zones.

    From the listing

    Posted

    Oct 16, 2026

    Verified Oct 16, 2026 by Jeff

    From the listing

    About the role

    We're an agile, globally distributed talent acquisition team with the creativity, expertise and ambition to revolutionize talent attraction — built around productivity and a 6-star candidate experience.

    This role sits in the Talent team and runs as a Payward-wide shared service across Payward, NinjaTrader, Reap and future acquisitions. It reports to our Global Head of Talent Acquisition with a dotted line to our Chief People Officer.

    This hire will handle confidential searches, sensitive succession conversations and market intelligence, working directly with our Board, C-Suite and broader Payward leadership team on a daily basis.

    What you'll do

    • Own executive recruiting end to end across the Payward platform spanning C-level, Board, VP+ and bespoke Advisor mandates.
    • Partner directly with the Co-CEOs and the executive team on the searches that matter most, absorbing their pace and operating as a trusted advisor.
    • Run board and advisory mandates with the discretion they require. Confidentiality here is structural, not a preference.
    • Define how executive hiring scales as a shared service across a growing, multi-brand platform.
    • Own the external search partner strategy: managing relationships with key retained firms, and ensuring seamless partnership if and when they are engaged.
    • Report to the Head of Talent and operate as a member of the talent leadership team, with a dotted line into the Chief People Officer.

    What they're looking for

    • 6+ years of executive recruiting experience, with demonstrable ownership of executive searches (VP, C-level, Board) from mandate through close.
    • A selection mindset over a screening one. You calibrate candidates against business strategy and can defend a shortlist to a skeptical executive audience.
    • Closing and negotiation strength at executive level: pre-closing, offer construction, equity and comp complexity.
    • Experience partnering closely with Compensation & Benefits and the HR business partners to ensure full alignment throughout a search lifecycle.
    • Business acumen to understand and pitch a complex platform business credibly. Executive candidates buy the thesis, not the job spec.
    • Proven agency and retained-firm management — briefing, accountability and spend control.
    • Exceptional written and verbal English at executive register.
    • Discretion by default, with a track record of executive searches quietly.
    • Comfort operating in ambiguity, with responsiveness to candidates and executives across all time zones.
    • Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, given the proximity this role requires to our executives and to board and advisory mandates.

    Nice to have

    • In-house executive recruiting experience at a fintech, brokerage, exchange or payments company.
    • Background inside a retained executive search firm, in addition to in-house work.
    • Experience building executive recruiting as a shared service across multiple entities, or across multiple portfolio companies.
    • Exposure to crypto or digital assets.

    From the company page

    Benefits

    Work from anywhereHealth & wellness stipendWorkspace stipendEquity in companyComprehensive benefits

    The hot takeJeff's read on Kraken

    Hire-from-anywhere alert! Kraken will hire prospective employees from almost any country.

    Full read on the company page

    Pulled from their careers page on Oct 16, 2026. Listings change; the company's page is the source of truth.

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