Principal Automation Engineer

About Kraken

Krakenites are a world-class team with crypto conviction, united by their desire to discover and unlock the potential of crypto and blockchain technology. Kraken is a mission-focused company rooted in crypto values, dedicated to accelerating the global adoption of crypto for financial freedom and inclusion. For over a decade, Kraken’s focus has attracted many of the most talented crypto experts globally.

As a fully remote company, Kraken has team members in 70+ countries, speaking over 50 languages. Krakenites are industry pioneers who develop premium crypto products for experienced traders, institutions, and newcomers, committed to industry-leading security, crypto education, and world-class client support through products like Kraken Pro, Desktop, Wallet, and Kraken Futures.

The Team

We are hiring a Principal Automation Engineer to build and scale the internal automation engine that powers Kraken’s operational backbone. This is a hands-on role for someone who operates like a systems engineer and a business partner in equal measure—someone who can architect workflows, eliminate operational inefficiencies, and rapidly ship automations that unlock leverage across every function.

This role sits within Business Operations and is designed to complement and extend the enterprise automation portfolio, focused on process, systems, automation, and workflow orchestration. This role will serve as an automation counterpart, embedding deeply across teams to solve operational friction with technical rigor.

You will own Kraken’s internal n8n implementation—including initial deployment, scaling, workflow development, and long-term governance—and build resilient automations across teams. You should thrive in ambiguous, 0→1 environments and be comfortable freelancing across functions to find and solve problems before they become big rocks.

The Opportunity

• Architect and own Kraken’s automation platform, with hands-on development in n8n and complementary no-code/low-code tooling.
• Design and implement end-to-end workflow automations spanning Finance, Compliance, Product, Operations, Engineering, Support, and more.
• Identify operational inefficiencies and build scalable automations that remove manual work and reduce errors.
• Build both code and no-code automations, selecting the right approach based on complexity and long-term durability.
• Partner closely with Business Operations to deliver quick-win automations while broader engineering teams focus on larger enterprise initiatives.
• Integrate internal and external systems, stitching together APIs, data sources, and tools into unified automated workflows.
• Establish workflow standards, best practices, and monitoring frameworks to ensure long-term stability and observability.
• Operate with high autonomy, moving from idea → scoping → design → build → test → deploy with minimal oversight.
• Partner with leaders across the company to identify and execute high-impact automation opportunities.
• Contribute to Kraken’s enterprise automation roadmap, informing future tooling and architectural decisions.

Skills You Should HODL

• Strong systems engineering background with experience architecting internal tooling or automation platforms.
• Deep fluency with n8n (or equivalent workflow orchestration tools: Zapier, Make.com, Airflow, Prefect, Temporal).
• Experience operating in startup or 0→1 environments, comfortable building structure where none exists.
• Strong understanding of business processes and the ability to translate them into scalable technical workflows.
• Proven ability to own problems end-to-end: discovery, scoping, technical design, implementation, QA, rollout, and maintenance.
• Ability to work across code and no-code ecosystems, selecting the right tool for speed and long-term maintainability.
• Experience integrating APIs, internal tools, third-party systems, and databases into automated workflows.
• High ownership mindset and bias toward action—proactively finds inefficiencies and solves them.
• Strong collaboration skills across Product, Engineering, Finance, Compliance, Data, and BizOps.
• Communicates clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Haves

• Experience scaling automation platforms in high-growth or regulated environments.
• Familiarity with data engineering or orchestration tooling (for cross-team workflows).
• Exposure to crypto, fintech, or other fast-paced operational domains.
• Experience contributing to enterprise automation or systems transformation programs.

Key skills/competency

• Automation Engineering
• Workflow Orchestration
• Systems Architecture
• n8n
• No-Code/Low-Code Development
• API Integration
• Business Process Optimization
• Technical Design
• Problem Solving
• Stakeholder Collaboration