Engineering Manager – Growth Foundations

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 offering spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services for individual and institutional clients. The Growth Foundations team builds the AI-native Growth Engine, delivering AI-driven systems and core infrastructure for growth tools, serving millions of users globally.

• Experience leading engineering teams and delivering high-quality results collaboratively
• Strong people leadership skills focused on coaching, clarity, and empowerment
• Solid backend technical foundation enabling engagement in design discussions and code reviews
• Strong individual contributor background with ability to write production-grade code
• High proficiency in modern AI-driven development using AI daily for automation
• Familiarity with modern programming languages such as TypeScript, Rust, Go, Python or similar
• Product mindset with focus on user impact and key metrics
• Clear communication and organizational skills aligned with business goals
• Experience working in distributed, remote-first teams

Nice to haves:

• Experience with analytics, performance/paid marketing, experimentation, or growth tooling
• Background in developer experience, SDKs, or internal platforms
• Exposure to scaling teams or processes during high-growth phases

• Lead, mentor, and support a cross-functional team of engineers delivering growth-critical systems and features
• Collaborate daily with Product and Design to define scope, set priorities, and ensure seamless execution
• Maintain clear expectations, realistic estimates, and transparent communication with stakeholders
• Provide technical guidance to help engineers make sound architectural and implementation decisions
• Foster a culture of accountability, trust, and learning to grow team impact and autonomy
• Improve team processes, communication, and collaboration across time zones
• Partner with other engineering leaders to ensure consistency and best practices across the Growth organization
• Leverage AI tooling daily to boost productivity
• Stay hands-on in the codebase, writing production-grade code and setting quality standards

Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis unless a specific deadline is stated. Applicants may redact identifying information on resumes. Qualified applicants with criminal histories are considered in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. Equal opportunity employer with no discrimination based on protected characteristics as per applicable laws.