Sr. Technical Program Manager, Data & Audit Readiness - Kraken

About the Role

Payward's Data team builds and operates the data infrastructure, pipelines, and analytics platforms that power decision-making, reporting, and controls across the business. The team partners closely with Risk & Audit, IT, Finance, and Engineering to make sure business-critical data is reliable, well-governed, and audit-ready.

This role sits within the Data & Audit Readiness team and acts as the program management and coordination layer between the Data team and internal Audit, Risk, Security, Finance, Compliance, and external auditors. You will own the inventories, playbooks, catalogs, and access processes that keep Data team systems and datasets audit-ready.

This is an individual contributor role reporting directly to the Director, Regulatory Analytics & Reporting.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the program management layer for the Data team during audits, interfacing with internal Risk, Security, Finance, Compliance, and external auditors.
• Proactively maintain inventories, playbooks, and catalogs between audits as an ongoing practice.
• Create and manage an inventory of audit tests, expected requests, and response playbooks for Data-owned systems and processes.
• Maintain a catalog of data sources in scope for audit, including known issues, readiness status, and mock testing.
• Align closely with business stakeholders (Finance, Security, Compliance) to provide guidance and coordination support during audit activities.
• Implement tagging and governance processes in collaboration with Data Governance to identify endorsed, audit-ready datasets.
• Manage auditor data access roles to ensure access is fit for purpose.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in program/project management, audit coordination, or data governance in a regulated or heavily audited environment (financial services preferred).
• Demonstrated experience with SOC, SOX, IT general controls, or regulatory audit frameworks.
• Experience acting as a liaison between technical teams and Internal Audit, Risk, Compliance, or external auditors.
• Strong organizational skills with experience building cross-functional playbooks and inventories.
• Familiarity with data cataloging, tagging, or governance practices supporting audit readiness.
• Understanding of data access management principles.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Haves

• Familiarity with audit management platforms (e.g., AuditBoard, Jira, Workiva).
• Knowledge of automated control design and control automation.
• Prior experience building or scaling SOC/SOX control systems in high-growth companies.
• PMP, CAPM, or similar project management certifications.