Deal Lead Corporate Development
Payward, Inc. is a global financial infrastructure company and the parent organization behind Kraken. It provides trading, custody, payments, lending, staking, tokenized assets, derivatives, and market data infrastructure to consumers, professional traders, institutions, enterprises, fintechs, banks, exchanges, asset managers, and onchain platforms.
Funding
Investors
About Payward, Inc.
Payward, Inc. operates a unified financial infrastructure platform powering a portfolio of products including Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, CF Benchmarks, and Payward Services. Its shared architecture provides global liquidity, risk and margin management, collateral and settlement, compliance and licensing, and operational infrastructure across crypto, tokenized assets, and traditional markets. Through Payward Services, the company offers APIs and infrastructure for crypto trading, custody, on/off-ramps, tokenized equities, derivatives, staking and yield, payments, and benchmark data. Payward operates across more than 190 jurisdictions and serves consumers, professional traders, institutional investors, enterprises, fintechs, banks, exchanges, asset managers, and DeFi/onchain protocols.
Skills
About the Role
You will lead M&A transactions and venture investments from initial diligence through closing. You will engage target leadership, negotiate key terms, coordinate cross-functional due diligence, identify risks, and develop recommendations. You will prepare deal memos, oversee pro forma financial models and valuation analyses, build industry relationships, improve corporate-development processes, and mentor team members.
Requirements
- 8+ years of Corporate Development experience at a hyper-growth FinTech company or investment bank
- Experience building pro forma financial models and valuation analyses, including DCF, comparable multiples, and accretion/dilution analysis
- Familiarity with M&A and venture processes, including legal matters and integration planning
- Ability to drive consensus and coordinate cross-functional stakeholders
- Understanding of global crypto and financial-services regulation
- Knowledge of or curiosity about the cryptocurrency industry
- Analytical, problem-solving, writing, and storytelling skills
- Attention to detail
- Technical background or knowledge of software and internet products and services
- Network in crypto or traditional financial-services markets
Responsibilities
- Contribute to M&A and venture strategy and identify high-value opportunities
- Drive M&A and venture investments and develop recommendations
- Lead the end-to-end deal process from initial diligence through closing
- Prepare concise deal memos that articulate value drivers and considerations
- Build consensus across leadership and the wider organization
- Oversee pro forma financial models and valuation analyses
- Coordinate due diligence with cross-functional stakeholders
- Build and maintain a network in crypto and financial services
- Improve Corporate Development processes and mentor team members
