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.
We are seeking a Brazil-based Compliance Officer & MLRO to build and lead the local compliance and financial crime programme for Payward Brasil. This is a hands-on role with end-to-end responsibility for the effectiveness of the firm’s AML/CTF/CPF and sanctions control framework, and for ensuring local regulatory expectations are embedded into onboarding, transaction monitoring, investigations, reporting, governance, and product launches.
This role will act as the designated MLRO/reporting officer responsible for managing internal escalations and ensuring accurate, timely reporting to COAF via Siscoaf.
Location/eligibility: Brazil (São Paulo preferred). Must be able to act as a statutory officer and be resident in Brazil.
The opportunity
Programme ownership & governance
Own and continuously improve Payward Brasil’s AML/CTF/CPF and sanctions compliance framework, ensuring it meets local requirements and Kraken group standards.
Maintain/uphold the local risk-based approach, including financial crime risk assessments and control design for higher-risk customers, products, and channels.
Provide compliance sign-off/advice on Brazil go-to-market, product changes, and control decisions.
CDD/KYC/KYB oversight
Oversee the Brazil customer lifecycle controls: onboarding, CDD/EDD, ongoing monitoring, periodic review, and remediation programmes.
Drive vendor performance and escalation (e.g., identity validation, CPF validation, address/location checks), ensuring outcomes meet “verify/validate” expectations while remaining proportionate and auditable.
Investigations, suspicious activity & reporting (COAF)
Own internal STR decisioning (triage, investigation quality, documentation) and external reporting to COAF, including maintenance of logs and confidentiality controls (anti–tipping off).
Ensure operational readiness for Siscoaf filing, including required credentials/certificates and process controls.
Regulatory engagement & audits
Be the local compliance interface for relevant authorities and examinations/audits; coordinate responses with internal Legal/Regulatory.
Support readiness for licensing/registration milestones (including evidence packs, control attestations, governance artefacts, and remediation tracking).
Training, advisory & stakeholder management
Deliver training and targeted comms for Brazil operations, CE, product, and investigations teams to ensure staff understand their responsibilities.
Produce senior management reporting/MI, escalating material risks, incidents, and control gaps.
What you bring
Demonstrated experience in AML/CTF/financial crime compliance within a regulated financial institution, payments, brokerage, fintech, or crypto/VASP environment.
Strong working knowledge of Brazil AML/CTF expectations (incl. Law 9,613 and BCB Circular 3,978 referenced in our local programme).
Hands-on experience with suspicious activity investigations, STR governance, and regulator-facing work.
Proven ability to translate regulatory requirements into operational controls (product + ops + vendor integrations).
Fluent Portuguese and proficient English required for regulatory engagement and global stakeholder reporting (written and verbal).
Nice to haves
Prior experience standing up a compliance programme for a new regulated entity in Brazil.
Familiarity with exchange/brokerage products, custody concepts, and transaction monitoring systems.
Experience with large-scale remediation/migration programmes.
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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