Network Engineer - Core Infrastructure

Payward is the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services, and CF Benchmarks. Kraken, founded in 2011, is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions globally, offering spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services for both individual investors and institutional clients.

• Minimum 2 years of network engineering experience with a security-minded approach
• Hands-on experience with firewalls, preferably Palo Alto Networks / PAN-OS / Panorama
• Experience with data-center and physical infrastructure work: racking, cabling, power, cross-connects, and hardware installation
• Working knowledge of switching (VLANs, capacity planning) and routing protocols (OSPF, BGP, ECMP, PBR)
• Exposure to public cloud networking such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, and hybrid connectivity
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code/automation tools like Terraform and Ansible and a code-forward mindset
• Comfortable with VPN and remote-access connectivity
• Strong bias for automating repetitive tasks and operational ownership
• Experience with industry platforms from vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, HPE Juniper Networking, and HPE Aruba Networking
• Valid passport and ability to travel internationally as needed

Nice to have:

• Data-center design and build at scale including multi-site buildouts, carrier/circuit delivery, and capacity planning
• Data-center fabric design expertise with Cisco ACI, HPE Juniper Apstra
• Deep firewall design and operations including multi-site policy, HA clusters, and large scale PAN-OS/Panorama deployments
• Experience building AI agents or developer tooling that reduce operational load, including agentic triage and runbook automation
• Defensive security systems knowledge including IDS/IPS, security monitoring, security testing, and offensive/defensive concepts
• Advanced public, private, and hybrid cloud experience with end-to-end ownership of IaC pipelines

Design & build data centers:

• Design and build data centers end-to-end including cages, racks, PDU/power, structured cabling, and hardware installation
• Deliver connectivity such as circuits, dark fiber, and DIA, including carrier/vendor coordination, cross-connects, and capacity planning
• Develop and evolve modern data-center fabrics like Cisco ACI and HPE Juniper Apstra

Secure the network:

• Design, implement, and defend a zero-trust, defense-in-depth network with firewalls at the center (policy, segmentation, secure connectivity)
• Implement and evolve enterprise network access controls (RBAC, least-privilege, segmentation)
• Collaborate with Engineering and IT Security to build-in security from the start and ensure secure, monitored feature delivery

Operate & respond:

• Act as a first responder to high volumes of infrastructure requests including provisioning, access, connectivity, and troubleshooting
• Monitor and maintain physical infrastructure (network, security, compute), cloud environments, and remote sites; respond to critical incidents to maximize uptime

Automate & tool:

• Manage and deploy infrastructure as code at scale
• Build team tooling including automation, internal utilities, and AI agents to reduce toil and scale the team
• Write high-quality policies, procedures, and technical documentation; evangelize and mentor on secure-network practices (especially at senior levels)

Applicants may redact or remove identifying information related to age, date of birth, or educational attendance/graduation dates from their resumes. The company considers qualified applicants with criminal histories according to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. Kraken is an equal opportunity employer prohibiting discrimination based on protected characteristics under federal, state, or local laws.