Internal Audit Manager

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.

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.

Payward's Audit & Risk function operates as an Integrated Assurance organization, bringing together Internal Audit and Enterprise Risk Management under a unified risk oversight strategy. The function spans Internal Audit, SOX Compliance, and Enterprise Risk Management across multiple regulated entities and jurisdictions. Internal Audit partners with co-sourced providers, maintains direct reporting lines to the Global and Local Audit Committees, and is building in-house assurance capability at the pace of a business that is acquiring and integrating new businesses across the globe.

You'll partner with Internal Audit leadership to run risk-based operational audits across the business, evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of controls across governance, regulatory, financial, and operational risk - with an immediate priority on post-acquisition integration as the business grows through acquisition. It's a global, multi-jurisdiction mandate, entity and region agnostic, and you'll direct specialist support wherever deep-technical depth is needed. If you want operational audit work with genuine breadth and immediate, high-visibility impact, this is it.

Responsibilities span the following areas:

Operational & integration audit leadership

• Lead risk-based operational audits across the business - governance, regulatory, financial, and operational processes - and help shape coverage across the audit plan

• As the current priority, lead post-acquisition integration audits - readiness, onboarding of acquired entities into the control environment, and the design and operating effectiveness of controls in acquired businesses

• Assess integration and change risk across governance, regulatory licensing and change-of-control conditions, finance and operations, data migration, key-person retention, and conduct and culture

• Perform risk assessments to identify key areas of exposure and prioritize audit coverage across the plan and the acquisition pipeline

• Direct co-sourced specialist (SME) support for deep-technical areas, retaining Internal Audit ownership of judgment and conclusions

• Lead AI-enabled auditing - apply generative AI, agentic workflows, and data analytics across the audit lifecycle to expand coverage and efficiency, while retaining human ownership of judgment and conclusions

Engagement & issue management

• Lead multiple audit engagements concurrently, managing planning, fieldwork, and reporting end-to-end

• Document audit findings, including control gaps and root cause, and draft clear, well-supported workpapers and reports

• Track and validate remediation of identified issues, escalating delays or gaps to Internal Audit leadership

• Contribute to the continuous improvement of audit methodologies and frameworks, and ensure conformance with the IIA Global Internal Audit Standards and the function's quality assurance requirements

• Lead engagement teams, including staffing and coordinating co-sourced specialists, and mentor junior auditors to ensure quality and timely delivery across audits

Stakeholder engagement & reporting

• Partner with stakeholders across the business, Compliance, Legal, Risk, Finance, and Engineering teams to communicate audit results and advise on control improvements, while maintaining audit independence

• Monitor the audit plan, the acquisition pipeline, and evolving regulatory expectations across the jurisdictions relevant to Payward's business

• Partner with other Internal Audit managers and co-sourced specialists to ensure coordinated coverage across the audit plan

• 8+ years of experience in internal audit, risk management, or regulatory examination within financial services, fintech, or crypto

• Strong generalist audit background -- proven ability to plan and lead audits across business, financial, operational, and regulatory processes

• Experience auditing complex, regulated environments; exposure to post-acquisition or M&A integration is a strong plus

• Multi-jurisdiction experience -- auditing or assessing controls across more than one regulatory regime, ideally with globally distributed teams

• Ability to get up to speed quickly on unfamiliar business models and direct specialist support where deep-technical depth is required

• Experience communicating findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders, including board or audit committee audiences

• Leadership experience, including managing audit workstreams, engagement teams, and co-sourced specialists

• Comfortable operating across multiple time zones, partnering with globally distributed audit and business teams

• Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality

• Relevant certifications: CIA, CISA, CAMS, CFE, or equivalent

• Prior M&A or integration audit, or transaction diligence, experience

• Familiarity with crypto, fintech, or digital-asset business models

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.

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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