Security GRC Analyst, Mergers & Acquisitions

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.

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 looking for a Security GRC Lead to own security governance, risk, and compliance across Payward's acquisitions. You will be the accountable owner for bringing each acquired company from its own control environment into ours, working with the M&A Technology Team from diligence through to either full platform migration or steady-state coverage under our central program.

Payward acquires and integrates companies continuously, across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory regimes. Every target arrives with its own controls, its own maturity level and its own audit history, and every one enters our financial statement audit scope on a timeline set by the deal rather than by readiness. Today that work competes for the same people who run controls for the parent company. This role exists so that it has a dedicated owner.

This is a build role to uphold the repeatable process for assessing an acquired company against our security baseline, mapping its controls into our compliance frameworks,and setting remediation milestones a newly acquired team can realistically hit. You will then run it, deal after deal, and you are accountable for the work getting done.

• Assess each acquisition target against Payward's security baseline, during diligence where deal timelines allow and immediately post-close otherwise

• Map the acquired company's existing controls to Payward's control framework, and identify gaps against the external frameworks the entity falls under once in scope

• Score control maturity at the entity level and document the basis for each score

• Define remediation milestones that are achievable for the acquired team's size and maturity, sequenced by risk reduction rather than by framework order

• Track milestones to closure and report status to Security GRC leadership and the M&A Technology Team

• Recommend the endpoint for each entity: full migration onto Payward platforms, or uplift to a maturity level the central program can absorb

• Load acquired-entity risks into the enterprise risk register and keep them current

• Prepare acquired entities for inclusion in external audit scope, including evidence collection and walkthrough support

• Act as the Security GRC point of contact for acquired-entity leadership, finance, and internal audit

• Maintain policy coverage for acquired entities, including building entity-specific policy libraries where the parent policy set does not apply cleanly

• Feed recurring findings back into the diligence process, so later deals are assessed against known patterns

• Document the onboarding process so that it is repeatable and not dependent on one person

• Target Assessment

  • Review target security posture during diligence: control environment, identity and access management, infrastructure, third-party dependencies, and prior audit or examination history

  • Produce a written assessment of each target against the Payward security baseline, separating the risks that matter to the deal from those that matter to steady-state operations

  • Give the M&A Technology Team and deal sponsors a clear read on what integration will cost in control remediation terms

• Control Mapping and Framework Onboarding

  • Map acquired controls to Payward's framework and to the external frameworks the entity becomes subject to

  • Identify which parent-company controls extend to the entity as they are, which need an entity-specific variant, and which have no equivalent at all

  • Build the entity's policy library where the parent policy set does not cover it

• Remediation and Milestones

  • Set milestones the acquired team can meet, each with a date, an owner, and a stated risk reduction

  • Sequence work so that the highest-risk gaps close first rather than the easiest ones

  • Run the cadence for tracking remediation and escalating overdue or material risks Prepare proposed risk acceptances, including the rationale and compensating controls, and present them to leadership for decision

• Program Integration

  • Prepare entities for external audit inclusion and support fieldwork

  • Keep acquired-entity risk visible in the enterprise risk register and in Security GRC reporting

  • Hand each entity over to central GRC coverage once its maturity supports it, with the handover documented

  • Integrate 3rd parties and vendors into Payward

• 5-7+ years in security governance, IT risk, or compliance, including regulated financial services, fintech, or virtual asset environments

• Direct experience onboarding an acquired company into an existing controls or compliance program. This is the core of the role

• Working knowledge of SOX/ICFR IT general controls and what external auditors accept as evidence

• Experience with at least two of ISO 27001, SOC 1, SOC 2, and PCI DSS, including mapping controls across frameworks

• Ability to assess control maturity and set remediation plans the receiving team completes, including teams below Payward's maturity level

• Hands-on delivery: you write the scope, collect the evidence, and close gaps yourself when needed

• Sound judgment on priorities with incomplete information, and the sense to escalate decisions that need leadership

• Ability to build working relationships with control owners in IAM, infrastructure, and engineering

• Ability to translate control gaps into risk language that deal teams and executives can act on

• Strong project management across cross-functional, distributed teams

• Preferred

  • CISA, CRISC, CISM, CISSP, or ISO 27001 Lead Implementer

  • M&A or post-merger technology integration experience

  • Familiarity with PKM

• You will own a domain end to end rather than supporting someone else's. There is no incumbent process and no one else doing this work today

• Acquisitions are one of the fastest-moving parts of the business, and security integration sits on the critical path for each one

• You will work directly with deal teams, acquired-company leadership, external auditors, and Security GRC leadership, with visibility into how acquisitions are evaluated and closed

• Payward is preparing for public company reporting, which means the controls you put in place at acquired entities are the ones external auditors will test

• The scope of this role grows with the acquisition pipeline, across jurisdictions and regulatory regimes

• You will join a remote-first, international team

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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