Engineering Manager – Growth Foundations

Kraken; Abu Dhabi; Remote; AED 420,000 - 600,000; Full time

Job summary

Kraken in Abu Dhabi is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Growth Foundations team. You’ll lead a cross‑functional group of engineers focused on AI‑driven growth features, ensure clear priorities, and deliver production‑grade code to millions of users worldwide.

This role combines hands‑on coding with people leadership, design reviews, and collaboration with Product and Design to align work with business goals.

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering teams and delivering high-quality results in a collaborative environment.
• Strong people leadership skills — coaching, clarity, and empowerment.
• Solid technical foundation, especially on the backend; you can engage in design discussions, code reviews, and help engineers make pragmatic decisions.
• Strong individual contributor background — you write production‑grade code and lead by example.
• High proficiency in modern AI‑driven development — you use AI daily to boost personal and team performance through automation.
• Familiarity with one or more modern programming languages (e.g. TypeScript, Rust, Go, Python, or similar).

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and support a cross‑functional team of engineers delivering growth‑critical systems and features
• Collaborate daily with Product and Design to define scope, set priorities, and ensure seamless execution
• Keep projects moving forward — maintaining clear expectations, realistic estimates, and transparent communication with stakeholders
• Provide technical guidance and contextual to help engineers make sound architectural and implementation decisions
• Foster a culture of accountability, trust, and learning — helping the team grow their impact and autonomy
• Improve team processes, communication, and collaboration across time zones
• Partner with other engineering leaders to ensure consistency and best practices across the broader Growth organization
• Leverage AI tooling daily to boost personal and team productivity
• Stay hands‑on in the codebase, writing production‑grade code and setting the bar for quality, reliability, and speed

Skills

People leadership

Engineering leadership

Backend engineering

Production-grade code

AI-driven development

TypeScript

Rust

Go

Python

Distributed teams

Product mindset

Clear communication

Job description

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

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 Growth Foundations team builds the AI-native Growth Engine, enabling Growth teams across the company. We design and ship powerful AI-driven systems, tools and automations, as well as own the core infrastructure of Growth tools such as our website, user communications and martech. It’s a team with direct influence on company growth, global reach, and user engagement at scale. Our products serve millions of users globally.

The Role

As an Engineering Manager within Growth Foundations, you’ll lead and develop a team of engineers who deliver high-impact features, platforms, and tools that power our growth. You’ll ensure the team is aligned, supported, and set up to execute with excellence — turning complex challenges into simple, reliable solutions that reach users around the world. You will also stay hands‑on and deliver production grade features personally every day.

The opportunity

• Lead, mentor, and support a cross‑functional team of engineers delivering growth‑critical systems and features
• Collaborate daily with Product and Design to define scope, set priorities, and ensure seamless execution
• Keep projects moving forward — maintaining clear expectations, realistic estimates, and transparent communication with stakeholders
• Provide technical guidance and contextual to help engineers make sound architectural and implementation decisions
• Foster a culture of accountability, trust, and learning — helping the team grow their impact and autonomy
• Improve team processes, communication, and collaboration across time zones
• Partner with other engineering leaders to ensure consistency and best practices across the broader Growth organization
• Leverage AI tooling daily to boost personal and team productivity
• Stay hands‑on in the codebase, writing production‑grade code and setting the bar for quality, reliability, and speed

What You Bring

• Experience leading engineering teams and delivering high-quality results in a collaborative environment
• Strong people leadership skills — you invest in coaching, clarity, and empowerment
• Solid technical foundation, especially on the backend; you can engage in design discussions, code reviews, and help engineers make pragmatic decisions
• Strong individual contributor background — you write production‑grade code and lead by example
• High proficiency in modern AI‑driven development — you use AI daily to boost personal and team performance through automation
• Familiarity with one or more modern programming languages (e.g. TypeScript, Rust, Go, Python, or similar)
• A product mindset — you care about how your team’s work impacts users and moves key metrics
• Clear communication and organizational skills, with the ability to align engineering efforts with business goals
• Experience working in distributed, remote‑first teams

Nice to haves

• Experience with analytics, performance/paid marketing, experimentation, or growth tooling
• Background in developer experience, SDKs, or internal platforms
• Exposure to scaling teams or processes during high‑growth phases

How You Lead

• You lead by setting context, not control — empowering engineers to make decisions with clarity and confidence
• You coach through curiosity, helping others grow their judgment and autonomy
• You communicate transparently, ensuring alignment across engineering, product, and design
• You model accountability and empathy, creating an environment of trust and shared purpose

How We Work

We give engineers ownership and trust them to ship high‑impact work with craftsmanship and accountability. We move quickly, experiment often, and learn continuously from data and user feedback. We build acquisition and engagement experiences that are fast, resilient, and measurable. We collaborate asynchronously across time zones, connected by clear communication and shared goals.

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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