Principal Architect - Digital Assets

Job Description

Purpose of the role

To develop, and evolve the banks technology architecture through relevant solutions, strategies and execution plans aligned to and prioritized by business and technology objectives, including the development, evolution and adoption of foundational platforms and products.

Accountabilities

• Development, evolution and implementation of the banks technology architecture and strategies aligned to the business and technology objectives, unlocking execution and run.
• Collaboration with stakeholders, including Enterprise Architecture teams and other developers to provide subject matter expertise and share knowledge to foster continuous improvement, and clients to understand and deliver on their technical needs.
• Motivation and leadership of a diverse collection of technologists, business and operations teams and enterprise leaders, with goal to align business & technology strategy & standards, identifying opportunities and connecting people.
• Assessment of new technologies to address current and future business needs, through a combination of curiosity and problem-solving skills.
• Determination of the optimal solutions while balancing continuous requirements imposed by compliance, governance, security and funding, through deep understanding of the business and customer outcomes and maintaining a strong and steady grasp on the underlying technologies.
• Monitoring and analysis of the performance, resiliency and stability of applications to identify and resolve issues and communicate and document key findings to stakeholders.
• Compliance with applicable regulatory standards and identification of industry developments that may impact the banks operations and controls to enhance the banks application portfolio.
• Support of engineering and architecture community initiatives to mentor team members, streamline operations, share and grow knowledge.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
• Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
• Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
• Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
• Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
• Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
• Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L - Listen and be authentic, E - Energise and inspire, A - Align across the enterprise, D - Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship - our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset - to Empower, Challenge and Drive - the operating manual for how we behave.

Define it. Build it. Scale it.

Lead the architecture and engineering of Barclays' Digital Asset Platform and drive it to production.

Lead the design and build of Barclays' next-generation Digital Asset Platform, defining not just what we architect, but how we engineer and deliver it at scale. In this role, you will drive end-to-end ownership of platform architecture and development execution, shaping how tokenisation, wallets, and real-time settlement capabilities are designed, built, and integrated across Barclays. This is a rare opportunity to influence both strategy and hands-on delivery of a foundational platform that will power the future of digital money at Barclays.

• Lead within a foundational Digital Asset Platform team, responsible for designing and delivering a reusable, enterprise-wide platform supporting token lifecycle, wallet services, and onchain movement of value.
• Operate at the center of a cross-functional build organisation, working daily with solution architects, engineers, product owners, and DevOps teams to drive architecture into production.
• Own the design and execution of a multi-network, multi-asset platform, enabling interoperability across networks, tokenized assets, and banking rails
• Lead architecture for live use cases, including tokenized deposits, securities, and future client-facing solutions.
• Act as a hands-on architecture leader, setting standards while actively coaching build teams, design decisions, and trade-offs across the delivery lifecycle.

To be successful in this role, you should:

• Strong appreciation for security, risk, compliance, and control frameworks within regulated technology environments.
• Have deep expertise in Digital Asset platforms, including tokenisation, wallets/custody, smart contract integration, and interoperability patterns.
• Hands‑on experience with L1s, L2s, smart contracts, onchain compliance, cryptographic services (HSM, MPC, etc), and interoperability frameworks at regulated financial institution
• Be confident leading end-to-end platform design and development, including APIs, orchestration layers, integration patterns, and distributed systems.
• Be confident using AI-enabled tooling to accelerate architecture design, optimise delivery productivity, and proactively identify and manage platform and delivery risks.