Building the Future of Open Finance

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.

Before you apply, we encourage you to explore our culture page to understand what drives us and how we work.

The team

Payward Services (PWS) is the Infrastructure arm of Payward, the parent company of Kraken, whose businesses span trading, payments, custody, banking, asset management, and services. PWS gives regulated businesses direct API access to the infrastructure that has powered Kraken for 15+ years.

Payward holds 100+ regulatory licences, operates in 190+ jurisdictions, and processes $2T+ in annual volume. Payward has also applied for a national trust company charter to offer custody and trust services to institutional and high-net-worth clients across the U.S. The company is backed by strategic investors including Citadel Securities, Jane Street, Deutsche Börse, and Nasdaq.

Operated through Paywards’s regulated entities, custody combines segregated client accounts, institutional-grade key management and cold storage, independent audit and control reporting, and direct connectivity into Kraken's exchange, staking, and financing rails. Clients get the security posture of a dedicated custodian alongside the liquidity and product depth of one of the longest-running exchanges in crypto.

The opportunity

As Senior Sales Lead, Custody & Wealth Management, you will lead the go-to-market efforts for Payward custody offering, including qualified custody, across two motions:

Institutional custody sales: Sell to banks, neobanks, fintechs, payment companies, brokerages, exchanges, asset managers, and any business that needs regulated digital asset custody, globally.

B2B2C wealth solutions: Work with Product to design and launch embedded custody and digital asset solutions. Private banks, wealth managers, family offices, and platforms serving high-net-worth clients can offer these to their own clients under their own brand, alongside PWS staking, trading, payments, and tokenized assets.

You will report to the Global Head of Sales, Payward Services, as a senior individual contributor. You will work closely with Solution Engineering, Product, Legal, Compliance, and Onboarding, and act as the voice of the custody and wealth market in roadmap discussions.

Lead and help define the global GTM strategy for Custody across institutional segments, asset managers, ETF and fund issuers, hedge funds, market makers and prop firms, banks and wealth platforms, corporates and treasuries, family offices, token issuers and foundations, and exchanges requiring third-party custody.

This role will be expected to:

• Grow assets under custody and custody revenue as the primary outcomes, with clear ownership of targets, forecasting, and pipeline discipline

• Develop commercial frameworks across custody, trading, and yield products including vaults and staking.

• Lead revenue across a range of relationships from long cycle RFP driven enterprise mandates to mid-market motion for funds, corporates, and crypto-native clients who need to onboard fast.

• Own the full client lifecycle from qualification and diligence through agreement negotiation, onboarding, and expansion into staking, trading, collateral, and settlement.

• Build and scale a revenue growth in the custody and wealth management vertical across a global Sales and BD organization, with an AI-first approach to tooling, pipeline management, and operational efficiency.

• Establish Payward as the default custodian across the institutional ecosystem, fund administrators, wealth managers, family offices, consultants, prime brokers, OTC desks, and the service providers who shape custodian space.

• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Security, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Finance to align commercial strategy with platform capability and the regulatory perimeter of each entity

• Expand Payward’'s custody footprint across the UK, Europe, US and APAC and other priority markets, with a clear view on licensing constraints and how to sequence market entry

• Feed the product roadmap with structured client demand: asset and chain coverage, staking, reporting and integrations, collateral mobility, and off-exchange settlement

What you bring

• 7+ years of experience building and scaling B2B or B2B2C revenue organizations within digital asset custody, Wealth management, traditional custody and asset servicing, or regulated financial infrastructure

• Proven track record closing and expanding complex, long-cycle mandates with institutional clients where security, regulatory, and operational diligence sit at the center of the buying decision

• Deep understanding of the wealth management space, how institutions actually select a custodian, risk and investment committees, operational due diligence, asset segregation and bankruptcy remoteness, insurance, audit and control reporting, and multi-custodian mandates

• Deep experience structuring custody economics: AUC-based pricing, minimums, revenue-share models, and multi-product commercial agreements

• Strong commercial judgment, negotiation skills, and executive presence at the C-suite and board level

• Experience building and leading high-performing global Sales and BD teams

• Demonstrated ability to implement AI-first sales tooling, CRM discipline, and scalable go-to-market systems

• International experience strongly preferred; US and European market knowledge

• Genuine conviction in crypto and the future of financial market infrastructure or deep, transferable expertise from traditional custody, fund services, or prime brokerage with a clear path to crypto fluency

Nice to haves

• Direct experience selling qualified custody, staking, or prime brokerage services to institutional clients

• Relationships across the institutional service provider ecosystem: fund administrators, auditors, consultants, transfer agents, and ETF issuers

• Working knowledge of institutional key management (MPC, HSM, multi-sig), cold storage architecture, off-exchange settlement, and collateral mobility

• Familiarity with KYC/AML frameworks and digital asset licensing regimes across multiple jurisdictions

• Experience scaling a B2B sales motion from founder-led or relationship-led origination to a structured, team-driven engine

• Experience selling into token issuers, foundations, and protocol treasuries alongside traditional financial institutions

• Exposure to staking economics, validator operations, and the reporting institutions expect around both

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Our commitment

Payward is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate the diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions, and unique perspectives that everyone brings to the table. We hire based on merit, seeking out people with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgeable about crypto.

We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, whether based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

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