SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Kraken, a leading crypto and payments platform founded in 2011 and trusted by over 10 million users globally, is seeking a Chief Operating Officer to lead the operational backbone of its UK business expansion. The UK is transitioning from MLR registration to full FSMA authorisation, and Kraken is moving with it, with active FCA authorisation workstreams and a growing payments business.
This is a hands-on individual contributor role with unusual scope. You will own day-to-day operations across UK entities, including Payward Services Limited (the EMI), overseeing safeguarding, payment services requirements, operational risk and incident management, outsourcing coordination, audit and regulatory readiness, and Board/ExCo reporting.
Key responsibilities include leading operational work behind FCA authorisation efforts (CASP and MiFID scope), serving as the operational counterpart to the FCA alongside Legal and Compliance, identifying and executing growth opportunities for the UK payments business (EMI scaling, institutional/B2B payments, commercial partnerships), and owning UK product operations and launch readiness for payments and trading products.
You will gate go-lives against regulatory and operational requirements, own financial promotions oversight, and build controls that enable regulated products to ship fast and scale. This role scales with the business as the UK regime lands and operations mature.
Required: 8-12 years of experience with roots in strategy consulting (MBB, Big 4, or boutique) and proven operational execution in-house or in industry. You must have operated inside a scaling UK fintech, bank, or crypto firm in roles like special projects, chief of staff, operations strategy, or operations lead, taking on scope beyond your title.
Deep familiarity with the UK regulatory environment is essential. You must have operated inside an FCA-regulated firm (ideally MiFID investment firm, bank, or EMI) and understand SMCR, safeguarding, financial promotions rules, Consumer Duty, operational resilience, and outsourcing rules. You have a track record of running complex cross-functional programmes with no formal authority and picking up work outside your job description.
You are structured and rigorous on governance and controls but allergic to bureaucracy. You communicate excellently across regulators, boards, engineers, and commercial partners. You are comfortable with ambiguity, a broad remit, and measure yourself by what you ship and land, not by headcount.
Nice-to-haves: payments fluency (understanding money movement across EMIs, banks, PSPs, fintech rails), crypto or digital assets experience, SMCR environment exposure, experience supporting or leading authorisation or regulatory change programmes end-to-end, or former founder/GM/early operations hire at fintech or crypto startup.
