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Kraken, part of Payward's modern financial infrastructure platform, is seeking an experienced Affiliate Lead to own and scale the global affiliate and KOL (Key Opinion Leader) strategy for the Consumer Growth team. This is a senior individual-contributor role with significant autonomy across Kraken and Krak products.
You will set global affiliate and KOL strategy, directly own affiliate and KOL execution in North America, and work closely with regional teams across LATAM, Europe, and APAC as the distributed team grows. Your focus is on acquiring and growing high-quality customers globally, with success measured by incremental funded customers who retain and create long-term value—not vanity metrics like links, clicks, or low-cost sign-ups.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own and scale the global affiliate programme, setting strategy, partner priorities, and investment allocation against funded customers, retained revenue, LTV, CAC, ROI, and fully loaded payback.
- Build direct relationships with valuable affiliates, publishers, comparison sites, communities, creators, and KOLs; use networks and agencies selectively.
- Segment the portfolio by audience, model, market, and customer quality; design and negotiate CPA, revenue share, hybrid, or quality-weighted terms that align incentives with sustainable value.
- Remain hands-on with strategic partners through evaluation, onboarding, offers, content, landing experience, verification, funding, first use, and retention.
- Work with Data to create partner-level cohort views and tests that separate last-click attribution from incremental growth.
- Decide which partners to scale, improve, cap, or exit based on downstream economics and customer experience.
- Protect the channel from brand bidding, coupon interception, promotional abuse, fraud, and low-quality traffic, working with Compliance.
- Build the Consumer KOL and creator strategy, personally recruiting, activating, and scaling high-potential KOLs and creators with tailored objectives, briefs, commercial models, and measurement.
- Adapt strategy to local customer motivations, barriers, language, regulation, and channel ecosystems; build repeatable workflows with Performance Marketing, Product, Creative, and regional teams.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Track record of owning and scaling an affiliate programme as a hands-on operator, with clear examples of improving customer and revenue economics.
- Commercial judgement across CPA, revenue share, hybrid, and incentive structures; ability to calculate fully loaded payback and explain why a deal creates sustainable value.
- Experience sourcing, negotiating, and growing direct partner relationships, including high-value or sensitive accounts.
- Ability to interrogate partner, funnel, cohort, and retention data; fluency working with Data teams to test hypotheses and make investment decisions.
- International experience adapting offers, partner mix, content, and operating approach to local customer behaviour and regulatory constraints.
- Practical command of affiliate tracking, attribution, fraud and abuse controls, and brand and compliance standards.
- Builder's mindset: create missing processes, share learning, and use AI or automation to improve speed and quality without outsourcing judgement.
Nice to have: Experience in crypto, fintech, or another regulated consumer business; exposure to creator or KOL programmes where objectives extend beyond direct response.
