Principal, Business Operations – AI & Automation
Payward Services is Kraken’s B2B arm — built on 15+ years of operating history — enabling companies to embed digital asset trading, payments, custody, staking, and funding rails through a single integration. The business is scaling rapidly across products, partners, and markets. Business Operations sits at the center of that — not planning from the sidelines, but driving execution, filling gaps, and building systems that let a lean team operate at scale across product, commercial, and operational domains. Our biggest lever is AI. We’re building an AI-native ops function where automation is the operating model. Claude-powered workflows, agentic pipelines, and custom integrations already power core processes — now we need to take this from early traction to full-scale operating infrastructure. As Principal, Business Operations – AI & Automation, you’ll co‑own the automation stack, partner directly with leadership, and act as a force multiplier across the business. This role is about building intelligent systems that make a 50‑person team operate like 500 — owning the roadmap end‑to‑end from opportunity identification through design, build, and scale.
Responsibilities
* Own the AI automation roadmap for PWS — identify, prioritize, build, ship
* Build and deploy agentic workflows and AI-powered tools (Claude-based assistants, automated reporting, pipeline systems, internal bots) that eliminate manual work
* Step into ambiguous, under‑owned processes and bring structure, automation, and speed
* Partner across Sales, Product, Engineering, Legal, Finance, and Compliance to translate business problems into automation solutions
* Improve and optimize existing automations for cost efficiency, reliability, and scale
* Drive 0 → 1 initiatives — from problem discovery to prototype to production
* Establish best practices for AI tooling, prompt engineering, and workflow design across the organization
* Advise leadership on where AI creates the most operational leverage and shape the long‑term vision for AI-native operations at Kraken
Skills You Should HODL
* 5+ years in Business Operations, Consulting, Product Strategy, or similar roles in high-growth tech, fintech, or crypto
* AI-native mindset — you already use AI tools daily and instinctively think about how to automate before doing something manually
* Hands‑on builder — you work with Claude, APIs, n8n, scripting, and automation platforms to ship real solutions, not just recommend them
* Rapid learner — you've switched domains, picked up unfamiliar tools, and delivered in weeks, not months. Steep learning curves don't slow you down — they're where you're most comfortable
* Data‑driven by default — you reach for metrics before opinions and can pull, clean, and analyze data yourself
* Strong structured problem‑solving — able to go deep into workflows, systems, and data to find the real bottleneck
* High ownership — you find the problem, design the solution, and ship it without waiting for permission
* Comfortable in ambiguity with a strong bias toward action and experimentation
* Ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment across functions
* Experience building or optimizing AI-powered reporting, internal tools, or operational workflows
Nice to haves
* Background at a top-tier consulting firm (MBB or equivalent)
* Familiarity with agentic workflows, MCP integrations, or multi-system automation architectures
* Background in fintech, crypto, payments, or complex operational environments
* Exposure to cost optimization in AI workflows (e.g., managing API usage, token efficiency, scaling automation)
* Experience with Claude Projects, Anthropic API, or similar LLM-based development
Equal Opportunity Statement
As an equal opportunity employer, we don’t tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind. Whether that’s 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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