HR (People) M&A Lead - Kraken

About Payward & Kraken

Payward — the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services, and CF Benchmarks — has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, built 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. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services, with products built for both individual investors and institutional clients.

The Role

Payward is hiring a HR (People) M&A Lead to own the people side of our M&A activity end to end — from first-pass diligence through close and integration. Reporting directly to our CPO, this is a high-pace, high-volume seat that needs someone who thrives on fast turnarounds and incomplete information. We're looking for an in-house operator with an analyst's mindset who can use AI to move fast through messy data rooms, but whose real edge is judgment — knowing what risks matter and when to deviate.

The Opportunity

• End-to-End Ownership: Own the people's workstream of Payward's M&A activity from first-pass diligence through close and integration.
• Due Diligence: Build and own the People due diligence questionnaire (DDQ) including data requests, target questions, follow-ups, and deep-dive workshops.
• Data Analysis: Crunch high-volume, low-structure data rooms (employment contracts, org data, comp and equity files, policies, claims history) using AI and automation to compress review cycles.
• Risk Assessment: Filter signal from noise, translating hundreds of findings into a short list of flags scored against Payward's risk tolerance, with clear recommendations.
• Deal Mechanics: Lead the drafting of people-side deal mechanics, including comp modelling, equity treatment, retention and earn-out structures, and deal-specific considerations for founder negotiations.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Sit in the room with corp dev, legal, finance, and People leadership to leverage SMEs and defend recommendations with data.
• Integration Management: Act as People M&A program manager post-signing, supporting org design, levelling, comp harmonization, retention execution, and Day 1 readiness.
• Infrastructure Building: Turn each deal into reusable playbooks, DDQ templates, risk scoring, and automation to accelerate future transactions.

What You Bring

• Experience: 8+ years across M&A people/HR diligence, integration, total rewards, or corp dev, with hands-on ownership of the people workstream on completed deals.
• Process Management: Track record of running multi-diligence processes in tandem under tight timelines.
• Analytical Depth: Comfortable directly modelling compensation, equity, dilution, retention costs, and integration spend.
• Global Exposure: Cross-border deal experience with multi-jurisdiction and/or regulatory change of control employment considerations.
• Tech-Savviness: Demonstrated use of AI and automation to review large document volumes, with strong judgment on model reliability.
• Communication: Ability to make and communicate risk calls on incomplete information to executive stakeholders.
• Negotiation: Credibility in founder-facing negotiations regarding compensation, equity, and retention structures.
• Discretion: Rigorous confidentiality instincts and comfort operating on live, undisclosed transactions.
• Adaptability: High agency in ambiguous, fast-shifting environments.

Nice to Haves

• Crypto, fintech, or regulated financial services acquisition experience.
• Experience integrating founder-led or early-stage teams into a larger platform.
• Prior experience building a diligence or integration playbook from scratch.