Transforming OKX, a Tier 1 exchange with Key Leadership Hires

The Challenges:

Two mission-critical leadership hires for OKX’s European operations — each essential not just to team structure, but to the long-term viability and regulatory existence of the business in the region.

• The Director of Internal Audit needed to be hired immediately to ensure internal controls, governance, and risk frameworks kept pace with OKX’s rapid growth.
  
• The Head of Compliance (EMEA) was arguably the most crucial hire in Europe, directly tied to OKX’s ability to operate under the incoming MiCA regulatory framework.
  

Both roles were vital to the leadership structure and crucial to the company’s continued existence and licensing in the European market.

‍Background

OKX, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange and a Tier 1 institution, approached us to fill two senior leadership roles in Europe. While their internal recruitment team typically led global hiring efforts, the complexity and regulatory nature of these positions required a specialist executive partner with deep knowledge of the European crypto and financial services market.

OKX sets an exceptionally high bar for hiring. With teams made up of former Meta, Google, and Tier 1 banking professionals, they demand rigorous due diligence, strong historical performance, and cultural alignment from all leadership hires. OKX is one of the hardest companies to hire for — they demand cream-of-the-crop talent with zero compromise; and we loved the challenge.

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Our Approach

Market Mapping & Executive Search

We ran a full executive search process by dedicating three fulltime staff:

• Mapped hundreds of professionals across Europe
  
• Interviewed over 50+ qualified candidates
  
• Delivered a shortlist of the top 10 for final stages
  

For the Compliance role in particular, we operated a 3-month structured search, benchmarking talent across both TradFi and Web3, and coordinating across multiple senior stakeholders.

Speed & Precision

For the Internal Audit hire, speed was non-negotiable. Leveraging our pre-vetted network and internal resources, we closed the role in less than 7 days from brief to signed offer.

Alignment, Communication & Expectation Management

Any search that’s critical and takes time — especially those involving multiple interview rounds and global stakeholder input — relies on strong communication and expectation management.

This is where many recruitment processes falter, but it’s where we excel. We stayed tightly aligned with OKX’s internal team, kept candidates engaged through weekly check-ins, and addressed concerns before they escalated. Our ability to keep momentum across a high number of interviews and working with various timezones throughout the interview process was critical to landing the right hire.

This level of execution is only possible because of our deep market intelligence. We know what top candidates are seeing, expecting, and walking away from — and we use that insight to course-correct in real time. This is what turns a drawn-out process into a successful, confident hire.

The Outcome

We successfully placed both critical hires into OKX’s European leadership:

• A Director of Internal Audit hired and onboarded in under 7 days
  
• A Head of Compliance (EMEA) secured after a rigorous executive search and a number interview rounds with global stakeholders.
  

Both roles were essential to OKX’s ability to grow, operate, and stay compliant under evolving European regulations — and fundamentally important to their license to operate in the region.

Key Results:

• 📈 Mapped 100s of candidates, interviewed 50+
  
• ⚡ Internal Audit Director hired in < 7 days
  
• 📊 3-month executive search for Head of Compliance
• Managed expectatos of global leadership and complex recruiting process

These hires were not just senior roles — they were cornerstone leadership placements, foundational to OKX’s compliance, governance, and regulatory future in Europe.

When the stakes are highest, our process delivers.

Don’t just take our word for it, hear from OKX themselves: 

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James: Director of Recruiting for OKX

• We've partnered with WorkInCrypto on several key searches across EMEA and have been consistently impressed with their results. Sam and his team bring strong market insight, a thoughtful approach to candidate engagement, and a clear understanding of our hiring needs. Sam does a great job keeping us up to date on our progress and is very responsive as searches evolve. We really appreciate his collaborative mindset, deep industry knowledge, and how well he partners with our recruiters.