Sr. Director, Block-Chain Application Engineering

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce; Toronto; On-site; CAD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Incentive pay

Banking benefits

Benefits program

Defined benefit pension plan

Employee share purchase plan

Vacation offering

Wellbeing support

MomentMakers program

Job summary

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) seeks a Sr. Director, Block-Chain Application Engineering to lead the Digital Assets engineering practice and deliver a complex, regulated technology program.

You will shape the engineering roadmap, govern architecture and security, and recruit and mentor senior technical professionals while aligning with risk, compliance, and regulators. You will collaborate with business and executive stakeholders to ensure responsible delivery, build a culture of

Qualifications

• 12+ years of technology experience with at least 5 years in senior engineering leadership in financial services or other highly regulated industries.
• Experience building and scaling high-performing teams and leading large, complex technology initiatives.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise blockchain architecture, smart contract design, and tokenized deposit concepts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the enhanced Digital Assets engineering practice and end-to-end delivery of a regulated technology program.
• Define team structure, hiring standards, onboarding, and development programs for blockchain architects and engineers.
• Oversee engineering roadmap, delivery model, budget, resources, and dependencies across all phases.
• Chair architecture decisions, enforce code review and deployment standards, and ensure audit readiness and security tooling.
• Collaborate with risk, security, and compliance to meet regulatory expectations and manage third-party risk.

Skills

Leadership

Blockchain knowledge

Strategic delivery

Executive communication

Regulatory awareness

Job description

What You'll Be Doing

Digital Assets Technology is building secure, scalable capabilities that support CIBC's innovation in tokenized deposits and enterprise blockchain solutions.

As a Sr. Director, Block-Chain Application Engineering, you'll lead the build-out of our digital assets engineering practice and oversee the end-to-end delivery of a complex, regulated technology program. You'll shape the engineering roadmap, establish delivery and quality standards, and guide architecture, security, and vendor decisions across multiple phases of implementation. You'll hire, develop, and lead a team of senior technical professionals while creating a strong engineering culture grounded in documentation, governance, and accountability. You'll work closely with business, risk, compliance, information security, and executive stakeholders to ensure solutions are delivered responsibly and meet internal and regulatory expectations.

You’ll also represent engineering decisions clearly at senior levels, helping drive progress in a fast-evolving and highly visible area of the bank. At CIBC we enable the work environment most optimal for you to thrive in your role. Details on your work arrangement (proportion of on-site and remote work) will be discussed at the time of your interview.

How You'll Succeed

Build the engineering practice - Lead the creation of the Digital Assets engineering team by defining team structure, establishing hiring standards, partnering on recruitment, and creating onboarding and development programs for blockchain architects, senior developers, and infrastructure engineers.

Drive delivery execution - Own the engineering roadmap and delivery model for the tokenized deposits program, ensuring milestones, budget, resources, and dependencies are managed effectively across all phases.

Govern architecture and quality - Chair material architecture decisions, enforce documented review and approval processes, and define engineering standards for code review, testing coverage, audit readiness, deployment controls, and release quality.

Strengthen security, risk, and compliance - Partner with Information Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to ensure the platform meets enterprise security standards and regulatory expectations, including third-party risk, cybersecurity, audit requirements, and digital asset compliance obligations.

Lead vendor strategy and oversight - Manage critical technology partner relationships, lead technical due diligence for new vendors, oversee service levels and delivery commitments, and support contract renewals, risk assessments, and escalation management.

Communicate with impact - Provide clear executive reporting on progress, risks, and key decisions, and translate complex technical matters into concise updates for senior leaders, control partners, and regulators.

Who You Are

You’re an experienced technology leader. You bring 12+ years of technology experience, including at least 5 years in senior engineering leadership in financial services or another highly regulated industry. You've built and scaled high-performing teams and led large, complex technology initiatives with full accountability for outcomes.

You’re strong in digital assets and blockchain. You have solid knowledge of enterprise blockchain architecture, smart contract design, permissioned networks, and tokenized deposit concepts. You can review technical decisions with confidence and ask the right questions on architecture, code quality, security tooling, and delivery readiness. You know how to operate in a regulated environment. You understand the Canadian banking and risk landscape, including key regulatory expectations related to cybersecurity, third-party risk, outsourcing, and anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing obligations. You can work effectively with risk, audit, compliance, and regulatory stakeholders.

You’re a strategic delivery owner. You have a track record of turning business strategy and regulatory requirements into sequenced delivery plans, managing budgets, risks, and vendor ecosystems, and keeping complex programs moving with discipline and transparency.

You’re an influential communicator. You can explain complex technical architecture clearly to executives, non-technical stakeholders, and external partners. You build confidence through strong judgment, thoughtful decision-making, and credible leadership across cross-functional teams.

Values matter to you. You bring your real self to work and live our values of trust, teamwork, and accountability in how you lead, make decisions, and support others.

What CIBC Offers

At CIBC, your goals are a priority. We start with your strengths and ambitions as an employee and strive to create opportunities to tap into your potential. We aspire to give you a career, rather than just a paycheck. We work to recognize you in meaningful, personalized ways including a competitive salary, incentive pay, banking benefits, a benefits program*, defined benefit pension plan*, an employee share purchase plan, a vacation offering, wellbeing support, and MomentMakers, our social, points-based recognition program.

Our spaces and technological toolkit will make it simple to bring together great minds to create innovative solutions that make a difference for our clients.

We cultivate a culture where you can express your ambition through initiatives like Purpose Day; a paid day off dedicated for you to use to invest in your growth and development.

What you need to know

CIBC is committed to creating an inclusive environment where all team members and clients feel like they belong. We seek applicants with a wide range of abilities and we provide an accessible candidate experience. If you need accommodation, please contact [e-mail]

CIBC is committed to clarity in our hiring process. All roles posted are opportunities we’re actively recruiting for, unless stated otherwise. You need to be legally eligible to work at the location(s) specified above and, where applicable, must have a valid work or study permit. We may ask you to complete an attribute-based assessment and other skills test (such as simulation, coding, French proficiency). We use artificial intelligence tools during the recruitment process. Our goal for the application process is to get to know more about you, all that you have to offer, and give you the opportunity to learn more about us.

Job Location Toronto-141 Bay, 11th Floor Employment Type Regular Weekly Hours 37.5 Skills Database Architecture, Database Management Systems (DBMS), Data-Driven Planning, Executive Relationship Management, Innovation Strategies, Object Oriented Database, Performance Improvements, Technical Leadership

At CIBC, we are in business to help our clients, employees and shareholders achieve what is important to them. At CIBC, we are in business to help our clients, employees and shareholders achieve what is important to them. Our ability to create value for all CIBC stakeholders is driven by a business culture based on common values: Trust, Teamwork and Accountability. Working with CIBC makes you a part of a work environment committed to our clients, employees and communities - a place where you can excel. Every day, our 48,000 employees help our clients achieve their financial goals, because what matters to our clients, matters to us.