Head of Finance & Custody Jobs Dubai UAE 2026

Kraken — one of the world’s longest-standing and most trusted cryptocurrency platforms, under parent company Payward — is seeking an exceptional Head of Finance & Custody (VARA) for its VARA-regulated Dubai Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) entity. This is a uniquely complex, senior finance leadership role combining full ownership of financial and regulatory reporting for the local entity with day-to-day oversight of client money and client virtual asset safeguarding under the VARA VASP Licence. The ideal candidate is a qualified accountant (ACA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent) with significant financial services experience, demonstrable client asset safeguarding expertise and — ideally — prior exposure to VARA or comparable digital asset regulatory regimes.

About Kraken / Payward — Building the Future of Open Finance

Parent Company: Payward — parent of Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks

Kraken Founded: 2011 — one of the world’s longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by 10+ million individuals and institutions globally

Services: Spot trading, margin, futures, staking, OTC — serving individual investors and institutional clients worldwide

Dubai Entity: VARA-regulated Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) operating under Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority

Mission: Advancing an open, global financial system built on 15 years of financial infrastructure innovation

Why This Head of Finance & Custody Role Is a Premier Dubai Career Opportunity in 2026

Landmark Role: Building the finance and custody control environment for a newly VARA-licensed crypto entity — a once-in-a-career opportunity to shape regulatory infrastructure from the ground up

Dual Remit: Combines traditional financial reporting, regulatory accounts and board reporting with cutting-edge crypto custody safeguarding — unmatched breadth of scope

VARA Regulatory Frontier: Dubai’s VARA framework is one of the world’s most progressive digital asset regulatory regimes — this role places you at its operational centre

Global Crypto Brand: Kraken is a globally recognised, decade-old crypto leader — a career credential that carries weight across both traditional finance and digital asset sectors

Position Overview

The Head of Finance & Custody (VARA) at Kraken’s Dubai VASP entity is a senior, high-accountability leadership position bridging Group Finance, the Group Client Asset Office and the VARA-regulated local business. The successful candidate will own monthly, quarterly and annual management accounts, prepare and submit VARA regulatory reporting packs, manage client virtual asset and client money reconciliations, oversee the daily reserve asset coverage workbook and build a robust, auditable control environment for a newly licensed entity operating under VARA’s compulsory and activity-specific rulebook. This role demands a tenacious, control-focused finance professional capable of operating with minimal supervision in a fast-evolving regulatory landscape.

Why This Role Matters: As Head of Finance & Custody at Kraken’s VARA-regulated Dubai entity, you are the custodian of financial integrity and client asset safety for one of the world’s most respected crypto platforms. Every regulatory submission, every client asset reconciliation, every reserve asset coverage confirmation and every breach-notification playbook you maintain directly protects millions of clients and ensures that Kraken’s Dubai operation meets the highest standards of VARA compliance, financial accuracy and client asset stewardship — at the very frontier of the global digital asset regulatory landscape.

Key Responsibilities

Finance & Regulatory Reporting

Own the delivery of monthly, quarterly and annual management and financial accounts for the VARA VASP entity, including budget-to-actuals review and variance commentary for senior stakeholders.
Prepare and submit VARA regulatory reporting packs (monthly, quarterly and annual as applicable) and serve as the primary point of contact with VARA on all finance-related information requests.
Prepare forecasts and budgets in collaboration with the Group FP&A team — including ongoing review of paid-up capital and Net Liquid Assets (NLA) headroom against activity-specific VARA thresholds.
Lead the local entity’s involvement in the statutory audit process, acting as the key liaison between the Dubai entity and Group Financial Control.
Develop and maintain the finance function’s control environment and Finance risk register for the newly established Dubai VASP entity.
Prepare legal entity Board presentations covering financial performance, capital position and NLA status for Director and Board-level audiences.

Client Asset & Crypto Custody Safeguarding

Monitor, control and report on the safeguarding of client money and client virtual assets (VAs) as applicable to the entity’s VARA-licensed activities.
Own the daily reconciliation of client virtual assets and the daily reconciliation of client money held in UAE-based client accounts — escalating material unresolved discrepancies for VARA notification.
Own the daily reserve asset coverage workbook, evidencing one-to-one, same-VA reserve coverage of client liabilities and coordinating the independent audit of reserve assets at required cadences.
Enforce no-rehypothecation controls over custody assets and ensure custody assets are never reported as firm assets — maintaining the integrity of the client asset boundary at all times.
Maintain client money placement timelines and manage the aged-item exception queue — ensuring client money reaches client accounts within VARA-required timeframes.
Develop, coordinate and maintain the entity’s client asset and custody safeguarding procedures and control framework — chairing or contributing to the internal client asset governance forum or Board.

Capital, Insurance & Wind-Down Planning

Maintain the paid-up capital and licence/activity capital matrix, the NLA reconciliation and reporting workflow, and liaise with Group Risk on the insurance schedule — covering professional indemnity, D&O and commercial crime/hot-wallet cover.
Own the breach-notification playbook for capital, NLA, insurance or reserve-asset shortfalls — ensuring timely escalation and regular updates until full rectification.
Maintain and test the client asset return element of the entity’s wind-down plan — including the client asset return runbook, records retention and weekly implementation reporting in a cessation scenario.

Third-Party Oversight & VARA Regulatory Expertise

Oversee relationships with third-party service providers relevant to client asset safeguarding — including UAE banks, custodians and technology vendors — ensuring ongoing eligibility and arrangement integrity.
Maintain a strong working knowledge of the VARA rulebook as it applies to the entity’s licensed activities, acting as the finance-side subject matter expert advising management on client asset implications of new products, services or markets.
Support cyber/BCDR and material-incident reporting timelines relevant to client asset systems, and pen-testing and vulnerability assessment cycles as they touch custody and reconciliation infrastructure.

What You Bring

Qualifications & Core Requirements

Qualified Accountant — ACA, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent — with significant relevant experience in financial services, ideally including a VARA-regulated or comparable digital asset regulatory regime.
Demonstrable experience in safeguarding, custody or client asset/client money control environments — crypto, e-money or investment-firm client asset regimes are all relevant backgrounds.
Working knowledge of VARA’s rulebook architecture — or a clearly demonstrated ability to build this knowledge rapidly in a new regulatory environment.
Demonstrable experience in a Group reporting role focused on statutory financial accounts and external/regulatory reporting.
Strong knowledge and understanding of key accounting principles under IFRS and/or US GAAP.

About Kraken & Payward

Payward is the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks — 15 years in the making as one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry. Kraken, founded in 2011, is one of the world’s longest-standing and most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges — serving 10+ million individuals and institutions across the globe with spot trading, margin, futures, staking and OTC services.

Kraken’s Dubai VASP entity represents a strategically critical part of Payward’s commitment to building a genuinely open, global financial system — and the Head of Finance & Custody role is central to making that entity operate with the financial integrity, regulatory compliance and client asset safeguarding excellence that the Kraken brand demands.

Payward is an equal opportunity employer — all qualified applicants are considered regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status or any other protected characteristic.

Who Should Apply?

Qualified Accountants (ACA/CIMA/ACCA) from Digital Asset or FinTech: With significant financial services experience, prior client asset safeguarding or custody responsibility and a willingness to operate at the frontier of VARA-regulated crypto finance in Dubai.
Client Asset & Custody Compliance Specialists from E-Money or Investment Firms: With proven experience building and operating client asset control frameworks — crypto, e-money or investment-firm backgrounds are all directly relevant.
Senior Finance Leaders from VARA or Comparable Jurisdictions: With working knowledge of VARA’s rulebook, experience managing regulatory reporting to financial regulators and the ability to build a robust control environment in a newly licensed entity.
Group Finance Professionals with Regulatory Reporting Expertise: Holding ACA/CIMA/ACCA qualifications and experience managing statutory audits, Board reporting, NLA monitoring and capital adequacy under financial services regulatory frameworks.
Tenacious, Control-Focused Finance Leaders: Who are comfortable owning both traditional finance and cutting-edge crypto custody obligations in a single, high-accountability senior remit — and who thrive with minimal supervision in fast-evolving regulatory environments.