Executive Search Lead

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

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. Our norms are direct, our decisions are fast, and we expect people to operate without scaffolding.

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.

Executive recruiting here is its own discipline — smaller rooms, higher stakes, the same directness and speed we expect everywhere else. Discretion is part of the craft: this hire will handle confidential searches, sensitive succession conversations and market intelligence that never leaves the room, and will be trusted to hold all of it. They'll work directly with our Board, C-Suite and broader Payward leadership team on a daily basis.

The opportunity

• 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 you bring

• 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 haves

• 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.

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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