Solutions Architect - Payward Services

About the role

This role centers on technical pre-sales within Kraken's B2B infrastructure division, Payward Services, which offers crypto trading, fiat rails, and compliance solutions. The Solutions Architect will engage with prospective fintech and neobank clients, conducting technical discovery to understand their architectural and compliance needs. The primary goal is to map these requirements to Kraken's product suite and design tailored solutions.

A key part of the work involves defining and refining the pre-sales process for a growing team. This includes creating playbooks for discovery frameworks, solution templates, and Proof of Concept (PoC) standards. The architect will also build PoCs and ensure a structured handoff to the implementation team, bridging the gap between sales and delivery.

Success in this position means identifying product gaps that hinder deals and escalating these to leadership to influence product development. It also involves designing solutions that might span existing offerings, custom integrations, or direct work within customer codebases, ultimately contributing to accelerating the global adoption of crypto for financial freedom and inclusion.

The salary for this position ranges from $127,200 to $254,400, with additional equity and bonus opportunities.

Skills that matter here

• Solutions Engineering: This role will define best practices and lead the pre-sales process for a team of Solutions Engineers.
• Discovery: The architect will conduct technical discovery sessions with potential customers to understand their systems and requirements.
• Integration Debugging: Fluency in debugging integrations is required, particularly with APIs and webhooks.
• Embedded Finance: Experience with embedded finance products is a requirement for designing relevant solutions.
• Pre-sales: This position is focused on owning the technical pre-sales motion, from discovery to deal-winning.
• Proof of Concept (PoC): The role involves scoping and building Proof of Concepts and ensuring their structured handoff.

Who this role suits

• You have a background in technical pre-sales within B2B API or infrastructure companies.
• You are adept at building processes from the ground up and have experience establishing playbooks for technical sales motions.
• You are a clear and structured communicator, capable of leading various technical discussions.
• You possess strong knowledge transfer skills, ensuring solution designs can be faithfully executed by implementation teams.

From the employer

Responsibilities

• Define the pre-sales process and lead best practices for a growing team of Solutions Engineers.
• Run technical discovery with prospective customers to map their architecture, constraints, and compliance needs to Kraken's product suite.
• Help define the product suite by identifying common requests and communicating priorities to engineering teams.
• Design tailored solutions spanning existing offerings, customizations, bespoke integrations, or direct work in customer codebases.
• Scope and build Proof of Concepts (PoCs) and ensure a structured handoff to the Implementation team.
• Build the pre-sales Solutions Engineering playbook (discovery frameworks, solution templates, PoC standards, handoff runbooks).
• Identify product gaps blocking deals and escalate blockers to leadership.

Requirements

• 7+ years in a technical pre-sales role (solutions engineering or solutions architecture) at a B2B API or infrastructure company.
• Proven track record owning the technical pre-sales motion — discovery, solution design, PoC delivery, and deal-winning.
• Fluency with REST/WebSocket APIs, auth patterns (OAuth, JWT), webhook architecture, and integration debugging.
• Experience designing and building complex integrations for technical buyers at fintechs, banks, or neobanks.
• Background building process from scratch — you've been an early or founding SE hire before and have created the playbook others run.
• Strong knowledge transfer skills — you know how to package a solution design so an implementation team can execute it faithfully.
• Clear, structured communicator who can run a discovery call, a design review, and a handoff debrief back to back.
• Experience writing RFPs and documenting solution approaches that clearly communicate how our product and our customizations will solve a customer's problem.
• Crypto domain knowledge — trading, custody, KYC, staking, fiat ramp mechanics.
• Experience with embedded finance or crypto-as-a-service products.
• Experience with Coast and building out proof of concept sales demos inside Coast.
• Hands-on with AI development tools (Claude Code, Cursor) for rapid prototyping.
• You've built a playbook and then hired the team to run it.

Conditions

• Salary: $127.2K – $254.4K.
• Offers Equity.
• Offers Bonus.