Software Engineer II - Frontend - Developer Platform

Kraken; Ireland; On-site; EUR 85,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Kraken is seeking a frontend engineering lead to accelerate the development of open finance web applications. You will work across React and the modern JavaScript ecosystem, leveraging TypeScript, Node.js tooling, and robust CI/CD practices.

The role focuses on improving builds, tooling, and developer experience while collaborating with product and infrastructure teams to enhance performance, observability, and reliability across our web stack.

Qualifications

• Experience building production web applications with React and modern JS.
• Strong TypeScript/JavaScript skills, including Node.js tooling.
• Solid understanding of how web apps work: browser behavior, bundling, caching, performance.
• Experience improving developer tooling, build systems, tests, or CI/CD pipelines.
• Good judgment on reliability, security, maintainability, and when to add complexity.
• Ability to lead technical design and collaborate with other teams.

Responsibilities

• Improve builds, type checking, linting, and tests locally and in CI.
• Evolve monorepo, package management, and shared configuration.
• Simplify development environment setup for parallel work with proper docs.
• Improve web delivery pipelines with previews, rollouts, monitoring, rollback.
• Strengthen automated validation with browser-based checks before ship.
• Collaborate with product and infrastructure teams to boost performance and observability.
• Lead tooling upgrades and migrations balancing long-term gains with shipping needs.
• Own improvements from design through rollout and maintenance.

Skills

React

TypeScript

JavaScript

Node.js

CI/CD

Web performance

Leadership

Tools

pnpm

GitLab CI

ESM

Build tooling

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.

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 opportunity

• Make web development faster by improving builds, type checking, linting, and tests, both locally and in CI
• Evolve our monorepo, package management, and shared configuration so changes across applications and libraries are straightforward and reliable
• Simplify development environment setup and support parallel work by engineers and coding agents, with clear documentation and tools that work with minimal configuration
• Improve web delivery pipelines, including preview environments, progressive rollouts, production monitoring, and reliable rollback
• Strengthen automated validation, including browser-based checks that help engineers and agents verify changes before they ship
• Work with product and infrastructure teams to investigate web performance, improve observability, and address problems across application code, tooling, and delivery
• Lead tooling upgrades and migrations across teams, balancing long-term improvements with the practical needs of engineers shipping products
• Own improvements from design through rollout and ongoing maintenance, staying close to the people using what you build

What You Bring

• Solid experience building and maintaining production web applications, with a strong understanding of React and the modern JavaScript ecosystem
• Strong TypeScript and JavaScript skills, including experience using Node.js to build tooling and automation
• A good understanding of how web applications work, including browser behavior, module systems, bundling, caching, and performance
• Experience improving developer tooling, build systems, automated testing, or CI/CD pipelines, and the ability to diagnose problems across those layers
• Good judgment about reliability, security, maintainability, and when added complexity is worth the cost
• The ability to lead a technical design, explain it clearly, and work with other teams to get changes adopted
• Ownership: you can take an ambiguous problem, find a practical solution, and keep it working once people depend on it

Nice to haves

• Experience maintaining large monorepos, shared packages, or tooling used by multiple engineering teams
• Familiarity with pnpm, ESM, and modern build, linting, and test tools
• Experience with browser automation, end-to-end testing, web performance profiling, or production observability
• Hands‑on experience with coding agents and improving the environments, documentation, and feedback loops they rely on
• Experience with GitLab CI, containers, or cloud infrastructure supporting web development and delivery
• Contributions to open-source frontend infrastructure or developer tools

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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