Sr. Compliance Associate Lead - Market Surveillance

Kraken; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Kraken is seeking a Senior Compliance Associate Lead for Market Surveillance to own complex investigations, review colleagues’ work, and refine detection models. You will draft reports, support platform tooling, and translate risk findings into actionable surveillance coverage across multiple asset classes.

Based in the UK, the role requires at least 4 years of relevant experience, strong written communication, and fluency in English.

Qualifications

• At least 4 years investigating market abuse or trading conduct inside a regulated firm.
• Proven ability to run investigations end to end and present findings to stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of core market abuse typologies across asset classes.
• Hands-on experience with surveillance platforms (Scila, Nasdaq SMARTS, Eventus or NICE Actimize) and SQL.
• Exposure to threshold or model calibration, platform integration, or market abuse risk assessment.
• Clear, evidence-first written communication with good judgement for escalation.
• Based in the UK, Ireland, Cyprus, Canada with fluency in English.

Responsibilities

• Take complex investigations end to end and present conclusions to senior stakeholders.
• Act as senior reviewer for colleagues' work and escalation point for judgements.
• Contribute to threshold and model reviews and calibrations.
• Support surveillance platform and tooling work and specify detection requirements.
• Draft suspicious activity reports and strengthen reporting processes.
• Contribute to market abuse risk assessments and surveillance coverage.

Skills

End-to-end investigations

Market abuse knowledge

Written communication

SQL / queries

Exposure to risk assessment

Tools

Scila

Nasdaq SMARTS

Eventus

NICE Actimize

SQL tools

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.

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.

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.

Kraken's Market Surveillance function is responsible for detecting, investigating and reporting market abuse across our regulated trading venues, spanning spot crypto markets, crypto futures, tokenised equities, OTC markets and consumer trading. As our licensing footprint and product range grow, so does the scale and complexity of the surveillance programme behind them.

We are hiring a Senior Compliance Associate Lead to take on our more complex casework, own an area of the surveillance programme, and act as a senior point of reference for the analysts around them.

The opportunity

• Take the more complex investigations end to end, including those that begin as a referral rather than an alert, and present conclusions to senior compliance stakeholders and the business.
• Act as a senior reviewer for colleagues' work, and a point of escalation for judgement calls on how an alert or a case should be treated.
• Contribute to threshold and model reviews, recalibrating detection as trading behaviour, products and market structure change.
• Support surveillance platform and tooling work, including setting out what detection needs to achieve and validating that it does.
• Draft suspicious transaction and order reports and suspicious activity reports.
• Contribute to market abuse risk assessment work, and help translate the risks identified into surveillance coverage.

What You Bring

• At least 4 years investigating market abuse or trading conduct inside a firm subject to market conduct regulation.
• A track record running investigations end to end, including writing findings up to a standard a regulator can rely on and presenting conclusions to stakeholders.
• Solid knowledge of the core market abuse typologies and how they present differently across asset classes.
• Hands-on experience with a surveillance platform such as Scila, Nasdaq SMARTS, Eventus or NICE Actimize, and comfort with SQL or a similar query tool.
• Exposure to threshold or model calibration, platform integration, or market abuse risk assessment work.
• Clear, evidence-first written communication, and the judgement to know when something needs escalating.
• Based in the UK, Ireland, Cyprus, Canada, with fluency in English.

Nice to haves

• Exposure to crypto-asset markets is welcomed but not required.
• Experience mentoring or acting as a senior reviewer for less experienced analysts.
• Experience of a surveillance platform implementation or build-out.
• Electronic communications surveillance experience.

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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