Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Kraken is a financial services company that focuses on building a modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platform. They are seeking a Platform Product Operations Lead to oversee operational running of US regulated entities, support licensing workstreams, and drive platform-growth initiatives.
Responsibilities
- Own platform product operations and launch readiness for our B2B2C products (KYC/KYB, lending, unified APIs). Gate go-lives against regulatory and operational requirements, and build the operations that let products ship fast and scale. You're comfortable diving deep into the product itself — how a flow works, where it breaks, and what it takes to launch it in a regulated market
- Drive cross-functional execution on roadmap milestones, compliance deliverables, and infrastructure work — running complex programs across Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, Finance, and external partners
- Run day-to-day operations across our US regulated entities, licensing maintenance, operational risk and incident management, outsourcing and intra-group coordination, audit and examination readiness, and Board / ExCo / management reporting. You act as the functional operating lead (functional-COO equivalent) for these entities
- Lead the operational work behind our US licensing workstreams — state money transmitter licenses (including NMLS filings) and state lending licenses — partnering with Legal and Compliance to turn regulatory requirements into governance processes, controls, documentation, and the evidence examiners expect, and supporting each licence through to approval where needed
- Serve as the operational counterpart to regulators and examiners alongside Legal and Compliance: information requests, supervisory queries, incident notifications, and closing out follow-up actions
- Represent the operational side of the US regulated entities in board, regulatory, and executive discussions, and champion a high-leverage operating model — defining core metrics, improving systems, and elevating how we build and scale regulated B2B products
Skills
- 8–12 years of experience, with roots in strategy consulting (MBB, Big 4 strategy, or boutique) and a proven track record of operational execution in-house
- Time spent operating inside a scaling fintech, bank, or crypto firm in roles like special projects, chief of staff, operations strategy, business/product operations, or operations lead — with a track record of taking on scope well beyond your title
- Experience running or working on a B2B or B2B2C business in tech, ideally including running or supporting platform teams (shared infrastructure, APIs, internal-client / partner models)
- A genuine jack-of-all-trades who can dive into product: comfortable sitting with Product and Engineering and getting into the mechanics, not just managing from the outside
- Working familiarity with the US regulated financial landscape and a feel for what supervision and examination actually involve. You can map regulation to business processes without a translator
- Experience setting up or working with compliance programs, including KYC / KYB onboarding programs
- A track record of running complex cross-functional programs with no formal authority, and of picking up work outside your job description because it needed doing
- Applies rigorous governance and control standards while remaining pragmatic about process — able to distinguish between controls that genuinely protect the business and procedures that simply add friction without corresponding value
- An excellent communicator across regulators, boards, engineers, and commercial partners
- Comfortable with ambiguity, a broad remit, and a title that means ownership rather than headcount. You measure yourself by what you ship and land — and that's what excites you
- Hands-on experience supporting or leading a regulatory-change program, end to end
- Crypto or digital-assets experience, in industry or through regulated product launches, including familiarity with crypto-native operations (treasury and custody)
- Former founder, GM, or early operations hire at a fintech or crypto startup
Company Overview