Virtusa - Senior Architect - Digital Assets

Description :

The Senior Architect, Digital Assets is a strategic delivery and platform technology leadership role responsible for shaping, building, and operating FABs institutional digital asset capabilities covering blockchain, smart contracts, tokenised deposits, on chain payments, asset tokenisation, and institutional grade digital custody.

The role partners with Business, Treasury, Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Technology to deliver safe, compliant, and scalable solutions aligned to CBUAE and ADGM/FSRA expectations, while driving client adoption and measurable business outcomes.

4. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES :

Generic Accountability :

The role is responsible for the end to-end design and rollout of the digital assets platforms. It demands strong techno functional skills, stakeholder management, and the ability to align services with business outcomes, resilience targets, and FABs transformation agenda.

Understand strategic business needs and plan for growth; analyse and design digital solutions and technical models appropriate for wholesale banking in the UAE and international locations.

5. JOB CONTEXT :

Specific Accountability :

- Tokenised Deposits & On Chain Payments: Help Deliver MVP then scale digital assets platform, settlement flows, ledger events, and reconciliation across DLT and core systems

- In depth knowledge of Distributed Leger and blockchain.

- Digital Custody & Key Management: stand up enterprise wallets with HSM/MPC

- Hands on knowledge of one of the major programming languages like Java, .Net , Python

- Asset Tokenisation: select token standards (e.g., ERC20/1400) and chain strategy (public/permissioned); govern smart contract libraries and lifecycle events (issuance, transfers, corporate actions, redemptions).

- Client Onboarding & Service Operations: oversee secure onboarding and support for institutional clients using custody, tokenisation, and on chain payment channels; maintain high availability and integrity of tokenisation, custody, and settlement pipelines; drive throughput, error handling, and resilience improvements; define SLAs and monitor KPIs.

- Knowledge of design for scalable reference architectures for custody, key management, nodes, and smart contracts; ensure robust integration with core banking, payments, data, and security platforms via APIs and event streams.

- Risk, Controls & Compliance: embed AML/KYC, Travel Rule, sanctions, market conduct, operational risk, data privacy, and records management controls; align to CBUAE and ADGM/FSRA guidance; lead incident management, RCA, and preventive controls.

Classified: Internal\ FAB Internal

- Operations & Resilience: define SLOs/SLAs, observability, incident response, and DR for digital asset platforms; strengthen cyber and key management hygiene; continuously improve reliability, cost, and performance.

- Stakeholder & External Engagement: Co-ordination with business and vendor.

- People Leadership: Lead a cross functional teams

6. HEALTH & SAFETY :

- Adheres to all FAB H&S policies and procedures as laid out by the Group.

7. FRAMEWORKS, BOUNDARIES, & DECISION MAKING AUTHORITY :

- Functions within the framework and boundaries of Group policies as well as overall organisational and governance frameworks.

- Authorised to take decisions as per the approved authorisation matrix.

8. QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE :

- 12+ years in technology or product delivery within banking/financial services; 4+ years in blockchain, smart contracts, digital assets, stable coins, tokenization and real time payments

- Detailed knowledge of digital asset ecosystem

- Hands on experience of smart contracts development and deployments

- Bachelors in CS/IT/Engineering (Masters preferred).

- Certifications valued: Cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP), Enterprise Architecture (TOGAF), Security (CISSP/CISM), Blockchain/DLT (Hyperledger, Corda, CBP), Agile (PMI?ACP/Scrum).

- Deep knowledge of DLT platforms and smart contracts; expertise in custody architectures, HSM/MPC, and key ceremonies.

- Proficiency in secure integration patterns (APIs, event streaming/Kafka), encryption standards (TLS/PGP), and key management.

- Experience with performance tuning, throughput optimisation, and operational resilience for distributed platforms.

- Excellent stakeholder management, executive communication, and vendor governance; data driven decision making.

- Budget ownership and financial acumen; disciplined risk management, incident response, and preventive controls.

- Strong Agile delivery practices (Scrum/Kanban), backlog management, and cross-functional collaboration.

Technical Competencies :

- DLT platforms (Ethereum, Hyperledger, Corda); smart contracts (Solidity/DAML); custody (HSM/MPC); wallet and key ceremonies.

- APIs, microservices, event streaming (Kafka); CI/CD; cloud security; observability and incident response.

- Compliance controls for AML/KYC, Travel Rule, sanctions, data privacy; audit readiness and records management.