Engineering Manager - Pro

About Kraken & Payward

Payward – the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services, and CF Benchmarks – has spent the last 15 years building globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms to advance an open, global financial system. 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.

The Team

The Exchange team is responsible for trading backend services, including the matching engine, market data gateways, internal and external APIs, margin systems, and various other trading services. Located globally, our sub-teams work with modern tech stacks including C++, Go, Rust, and Python.

The Opportunity

As an Engineering Manager, you will lead and guide a high-performing team responsible for core trading backend infrastructure:

• Lead and grow a team of 8-10 engineers owning core trading backend services, including the matching engine, market data gateways, and order entry systems.
• Guide the team through the ongoing evolution of our trading stack, moving from legacy systems to modern replacements.
• Stay technically engaged to unblock, review, and contribute to architecture discussions across matching engine, market data, and order entry work, assisting with code when necessary.
• Champion performance and market data work as top priorities while supporting the team's broader technical scope.
• Bring AI-assisted engineering practices into the team's workflow and support engineer adoption.
• Partner cross-functionally with product and other engineering pods to drive roadmap execution.
• Represent the team technically with peer teams and stakeholders, communicating tradeoffs and progress clearly.

What You Bring

• Experience managing engineering teams, with a preference for managers who stay technically engaged.
• Prior hands-on experience in at least one of the following using Linux: distributed/highly concurrent systems, low-latency, or high-volume transaction environments.
• Proficiency in Rust and/or C++, and comfort operating in a team split across C++, Rust, Go, and Python.
• Demonstrated knowledge of order types, trading systems, and financial products.
• BS in a technical or quantitative field.
• Proactive mindset with the ability to prioritize across a technically deep team and adhere to aggressive deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Aeron or similar messaging/transport systems.
• Comfort with multicast-based market data distribution.
• Familiarity with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.