Director, Legal Operations

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.

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 Director, Legal Operations will serve as the centralized owner for Legal’s operations, technology, data, and execution. This role is responsible for Legal AI strategy and implementation, partnering closely with Engineering, Product, Security, Finance, and other stakeholders to modernize and scale Kraken’s legal function. As Kraken’s regulatory footprint and business complexity grow, this leader will own operational strategy, tooling, process design, and metrics—driving automation, AI adoption, workflow standardization, and vendor optimization. This role ensures Legal operates as a strategic, data-driven partner to the business rather than a reactive cost center.

This leader will also be responsible for Legal’s financial, resourcing, and demand management foundations—ensuring the right work is done by the right resource at the right cost, with predictable outcomes as the organization scales.

• Serve as DRI for Legal Operations, Legal Technology, and Legal AI strategy, execution, and governance.

• Own Legal’s operating model across workflows, processes, resourcing, and service delivery.

• Own budget planning, forecasting, accruals, and cost modeling with Finance.

• Manage legal billing and outside counsel.

• Lead resourcing, capacity planning, headcount modeling, role design, and make/buy/automate decisions.

• Manage the legal technology stack (CLM, matter management, AI tools, knowledge management, intake, spend management).

• Enforce centralized ownership, standardization, and compliance across legal technology.

• Evaluate AI tooling, drive build-vs-buy decisions, translate requirements into technical roadmaps, ensure secure deployment, measure ROI, and lead integrations.

• Establish metrics, dashboards, and controls for workload, demand, spend, cycle times, efficiency, risk, and outcomes.

• Design and operate intake, triage, and demand-management frameworks, including prioritization models, service tiers, SLAs, and self-service pathways.

• Optimize vendor and contractor management, spend controls, billing review, performance measurement, and work allocation.

• Design, implement, and adopt AI-enabled legal workflows at scale.

• Evolve the Legal knowledge management strategy (playbooks, templates, decision trees, guidance) for reuse and automation.

• Prioritize operational, process, and technology initiatives based on impact, risk reduction, and ROI.

• Lead change management, training, and adoption for new processes, technologies, and AI systems.

• Ensure compliance with regulatory, security, privacy, and compliance standards.

• Maintain operational controls to reduce legal, regulatory, and model risk.

• Enable attorneys to focus on legal judgment, strategy, and advisory work.

• 10+ years in Legal Operations, legal technology, process design, finance-adjacent operations, or operational leadership.

• Experience scaling legal operations, legal technology, financial management, and data-driven execution.

• Experience driving automation and AI initiatives from strategy through deployment, governance, adoption, and ROI measurement.

• Understanding of legal workflows (contracts, regulatory, litigation, investigations, intake, outside counsel management) and process redesign.

• Hands-on experience optimizing legal technology platforms (CLM, matter management, spend management, intake, knowledge management, AI tools).

• Ability to translate requirements into technical roadmaps and operational plans.

• Experience establishing metrics, dashboards, controls, and OKRs.

• Communication skills to influence legal leaders, executives, and technical teams.

• Experience operating in ambiguity and leading transformation in high-growth environments.

• Experience in fintech, crypto, financial services, or regulated industries.

• Background in enterprise AI governance, model risk management, or secure AI deployment.

• People management experience in Legal Operations or adjacent functions.

• Experience benchmarking Legal Operations practices, tooling, and cost structures against industry standards.

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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