Director, Financial Services Industry Lead

Blockstream was founded in 2014 by Dr. Adam Back and a group of fellow cryptographers and engineers who are passionate about Bitcoin and its potential to change the world. Today, Blockstream is the leading Bitcoin company, providing cutting-edge infrastructure solutions for enterprises, institutions, and individual Bitcoin users. We develop industry-leading Bitcoin self-custody solutions, Bitcoin-based financial products, second-layer scaling technologies, and enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure.

We are seeking a Director, Financial Services Industry Lead, a senior leadership role serving as the primary technical, architectural, and strategic authority for clients across banking and financial services. This position is accountable for identifying market needs, shaping industry-specific solution strategy, and providing expert architectural guidance to clients at executive and board levels.

This role owns the translation of market demand and client business challenges into scalable, secure, and compliant architectural solutions. The Director, Industry Lead, Financial Services works closely with executive stakeholders, commercial leadership, and Product & Engineering to influence go-to-market strategy, portfolio direction, and long-term product evolution.

What You’ll Be Doing (Responsibilities)

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team responsible for translating market demand and complex financial-services client challenges into scalable, secure, and compliant architectural solutions

• Own the identification, analysis, and prioritization of market needs across banking, custody, payments, tokenization, and digital assets

• Define and lead industry solution and architecture strategy, ensuring alignment with market demand, regulatory requirements, and company growth objectives

• Act as the senior-level trusted advisor and architectural authority for clients, guiding strategic technology and architecture decisions

• Lead executive client engagements, architectural discovery sessions, and solution strategy workshops to define future-state architectures

• Set architectural direction for end-to-end solutions, covering front-end, back-end, integration, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and security

• Drive customer solutions strategy within the Service and Enterprise Products organization, identifying product utility, efficiencies, and architectural synergies

• Translate market insights and client requirements into standardized solution patterns, architectural principles, and reference architectures

• Elevate the Enterprise Team’s competitive positioning by simplifying complex architectures and accelerating enterprise adoption

• Demonstrate deep expertise in banking architectures and processes, including core banking platforms (e.g. Avaloq or equivalent) and integration of blockchain technologies into regulated financial systems

• Oversee and support complex client engagements from solution strategy through delivery and referenceable outcomes

• Provide executive guidance on regulatory and compliance considerations for crypto custody, digital assets, and blockchain-based solutions, with a focus on Swiss and European regulations

• Serve as the Voice of the Market and Voice of the Customer at a leadership level, influencing product strategy, feature prioritization, and roadmap planning

• Own the creation, governance, and evolution of reference architectures and best-practice frameworks reflecting industry standards and market adoption patterns

• Act as a senior escalation point for complex architectural and technical challenges in partnership with Product & Engineering leadership

• Partner with commercial leadership on deal strategy, shaping solution architecture, delivery models, SLAs, and commercial structures

• Contribute to resource planning and prioritization across Product & Engineering during strategic pursuits and deal execution

• Represent the company externally through executive briefings, conferences, and industry events

What We Look for In You (Required Qualifications)

• 10+ years of experience in technology leadership, banking, or financial services transformation

• Proven leadership in building and managing high-performing teams, stakeholder management, and decision-making capabilities

• Proven experience in senior client-facing roles such as Director of Architecture, Principal Solutions Architect, or equivalent within banking, fintech, payments, or capital markets

• Demonstrated ability to operate at executive and board level, advising on strategy, architecture, and transformation initiatives

• Deep domain expertise in banking and financial services, including exposure to:

• Core banking platforms (Avaloq or similar preferred)

• Custody, treasury, payments, or capital markets environments

• Strong track record of translating market needs and business strategy into scalable technology architectures

• Broad hands-on architectural experience across:

• Front-end and back-end systems

• Cloud platforms, preferably AWS

• DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)

• Experience designing and governing production-grade, enterprise-scale architectures using:

• Python, Rust, or similar languages

• JavaScript / TypeScript frameworks (React, Vue, Angular, etc.)

• API-driven and event-driven architectures with database backends

• Strong understanding of regulated environments, risk management, and compliance-driven architecture

• Exceptional communication and executive presentation skills

• Self-starter with proven ability to work collaboratively across multiple teams and geographies, demonstrating high-quality and high-touch customer engagement throughout all phases of delivery

• Languages: Swiss German, German, and English required; French and/or Italian a plus

• Location: Switzerland, with focus on Zurich and Zug

Nice To Haves (Preferred Qualifications)

• Strong knowledge of Bitcoin and blockchain technologies

• Experience integrating digital asset infrastructure into traditional banking systems

• Background in treasury management, corporate finance, or digital asset custody

• Experience with FIX, OMS, PMS, fund administration, accounting, or market data systems

• Experience working with or advising banks, asset managers, and institutional clients

• Exposure to traditional payment systems and cross-border payment flows

• Experience supporting or scaling go-to-market teams in fintech or digital assets

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