Founding Developer Relations Lead

About Payward and Kraken

Payward, the parent company of Kraken and several other financial platforms, has developed one of the most advanced and globally accessible financial infrastructure systems over the last 15 years. This platform aims to foster an open, global financial system. Our enterprise infrastructure platform, Payward Services, offers unified trading, payments, funding, and digital asset services. It provides streamlined liquidity, custody, compliance, risk management, and settlement features, simplifying operations for fintech companies, banks, brokerages, and payment providers.

Our engineering, product, infrastructure, and regulatory capabilities are world-class. We build APIs, wallets, payment systems, developer tools, and interfaces for agents that will fuel the future of financial applications.

Role Overview

We are seeking the founding leader to establish the Developer & Agent Interface function, a critical capability that currently does not exist. This role operates at the crossroads of Engineering, Product, and Growth, tasked with creating how developers and AI agents find, access, and engage with our platform. It involves defining developer discovery, agent interactions, and the go-to-market strategy for new infrastructure products.

This position offers a unique opportunity to build this function from scratch, without an existing framework, team, or processes. You will collaborate closely with engineers building APIs, SDKs, wallets, payment infrastructure, and agent-focused solutions, influencing both the products and their support experience. Your mission is to make Payward the preferred infrastructure choice for AI agents and developers who seek financial services like trading, payments, and wallets.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage developer activation efforts across all platforms, including APIs, SDKs, CLIs, MCP servers, wallets, and emergent agent interfaces.
• Drive meaningful adoption metrics such as API utilization, SDK installations, real-world integrations, GitHub participation, and agent queries.
• Create quickstart guides, sample implementations, software development kits, command-line tools, MCP servers, and other developer resources that facilitate seamless integration with Payward.
• Work in close partnership with product and engineering teams to ensure every product launch is optimized for developers and AI agents from day one.
• Define and refine how developers and AI agents discover, comprehend, and interact with Payward's infrastructure.
• Develop compelling technical narratives, launch materials, demos, and documentation to establish Payward as a premier developer platform.
• Deliver prominent keynotes, live demonstrations, and technical presentations at industry conferences and developer events.
• Act as an advocate for developers by identifying friction points, gathering ecosystem feedback, and shaping product direction accordingly.
• Build the culture, systems, and processes that will form the foundation of a leading Developer & Agent Interface organization in the long term.

Candidate Profile

• Experience growing developer adoption at leading platform companies such as Stripe, Vercel, Cloudflare, Anthropic, GitHub, OpenAI, Twilio, or similar organizations.
• Strong technical competence—able to interpret OpenAPI specifications, contribute code, evaluate integrations, and engage engineering peers effectively.
• Demonstrated success in driving measurable adoption outcomes, beyond just awareness or engagement.
• Exceptional storytelling ability, capable of crafting launch communications, delivering keynote speeches, creating demos, and simplifying complex products.
• A bias for building, shipping, and experimenting with new approaches.
• An in-depth understanding of contemporary developer ecosystems and workflows.
• Familiarity with agent-era technologies such as MCP servers, agent tooling, structured retrieval, and AI-native developer experiences, appreciating where retrieval surpasses SEO.
• Experience collaborating closely with engineering and product teams to influence the developer experience directly rather than just marketing or documentation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in building developer platforms from the ground up rather than joining established DevRel groups.
• Knowledge of wallets, identity management, authentication, and transaction flows designed for agent-native environments.

Additional Information

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis unless otherwise specified. Candidates may omit or redact personal data such as age, birthdate, or education dates from their resume. We consider candidates with criminal records in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

We value diversity and inclusivity, hiring strictly based on skills and qualifications. We encourage applications from passionate candidates even if not all requirements are fully met—especially those interested in crypto.

Applicants might be asked to complete relevant skills or work-style assessments during the hiring process. Assessments are used fairly and considered alongside experience and interviews.

As an equal opportunity employer, discrimination or harassment based on protected characteristics is not tolerated.