Affiliate Lead - Consumer

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.

Kraken's Consumer Growth team is responsible for acquiring and growing high-quality customers globally across Kraken and Krak. We are looking for an experienced affiliate operator to own and scale our existing affiliate programme and build the Consumer KOL and creator strategy.

This is a senior individual-contributor role with significant autonomy. You will set the global affiliate and KOL strategy, directly own affiliate and KOL execution in North America, and work closely with regional KOL and affiliate colleagues across LATAM, Europe and APAC as this distributed team grows over time. You will decide which affiliate and KOL partners to recruit, scale, improve or exit; determine how channel budgets are allocated across partners; and personally lead our most important partner relationships. Success means incremental funded customers who retain and create long-term value, achieving our payback targets — not more links, clicks or low-cost sign-ups.

This is a senior individual-contributor role with significant autonomy. You will set channel direction, make portfolio and investment decisions, and remain hands-on with strategic partners. Success means incremental funded customers who retain and create long-term value—not more links, clicks or low-cost sign-ups.

• Own and scale the global affiliate programme across Kraken and Krak. Set strategy, partner and market priorities, and investment allocation against funded customers, retained revenue, LTV, CAC, ROI and fully loaded payback. Include all affiliate and KOL costs—retainers, CPA, revenue share, flat fees, incentives, and attributable production or activation costs—in those decisions.

• Build direct relationships with valuable affiliates, publishers, comparison sites, communities, creators and KOLs; use networks and agencies selectively, not as a substitute for partner craft.

• Segment the portfolio by audience, model, market and customer quality. Design and negotiate CPA, revenue share, hybrid or quality-weighted terms that align incentives with sustainable value.

• Remain hands-on with strategic partners through evaluation, onboarding, offers, content, landing experience, verification, funding, first use and retention. Diagnose where performance is gained or lost.

• Work with Data to create partner-level cohort views and tests that separate last-click attribution from incremental growth. Bring clear hypotheses and context; do not wait for analysts to frame the business question.

• Decide which partners to scale, improve, cap or exit based on downstream economics and customer experience—not top-of-funnel volume alone.

• Protect the channel from brand bidding, coupon interception, promotional abuse, fraud and low-quality traffic, working with Compliance and other partners on practical controls and escalation paths.

• Build the Consumer KOL and creator strategy, personally recruiting, activating and scaling high-potential KOLs and creators. Set objectives, briefs, commercial models and measurement suited to each partnership; do not force every creator into a performance-affiliate model.

• Adapt strategy to local customer motivations, barriers, language, regulation and channel ecosystems. Build repeatable workflows with Performance Marketing, Product, Creative and regional teams, using AI to improve sourcing, analysis, content operations and monitoring while retaining human judgement and compliance review.
  

Required

• A track record of owning and scaling an affiliate programme as a hands-on operator, with clear examples of improving customer and revenue economics.

• Commercial judgement across CPA, revenue share, hybrid and incentive structures, including the ability to calculate fully loaded payback and explain why a deal creates sustainable value.

• Experience sourcing, negotiating and growing direct partner relationships, including high-value or sensitive accounts.

• The ability to interrogate partner, funnel, cohort and retention data and work fluently with Data to test hypotheses and make investment decisions.

• International experience adapting offers, partner mix, content and operating approach to local customer behaviour and regulatory constraints.

• Practical command of affiliate tracking, attribution, fraud and abuse controls, and brand and compliance standards.

• A builder's mindset: you create missing processes, share learning, and use AI or automation where it improves speed and quality without outsourcing judgement.

Nice to have

• Experience in crypto, fintech or another regulated consumer business, plus exposure to creator or KOL programmes where objectives extend beyond direct response.

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.

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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