Blockchain Engineer - Software Engineering

Morgan Stanley; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 215,000; Full time

Job summary

Morgan Stanley is seeking a Blockchain Engineer at Director or VP level for the Digital Assets Platform Technology team in the United States. The role leads a cross-functional engineering group building custody, tokenization, and blockchain connectivity solutions with security-by-design and enterprise-grade resilience.

Ideal candidates bring 7+ years in tech, 3+ years in digital assets, and strong cloud-native, CI/CD, and cryptography expertise.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant technology experience, typically with a Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.
• 3+ years of hands‑on experience with digital assets, blockchain, tokenization, or distributed‑ledger technologies, preferably delivering production solutions.
• Strong experience with cloud‑native architecture and infrastructure, preferably AWS, together with CI/CD, DevSecOps, containerization, IaC, and modern platform‑engineering practices.
• Strong understanding of digital asset and blockchain architecture, including distributed ledgers, consensus mechanisms, smart contracts, cryptography, transaction lifecycle, and on‑chain/off‑chain integration patterns.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional engineering team responsible for building secure, scalable, and resilient digital asset custody capabilities within the Digital Assets Platform.
• Define the engineering roadmap for digital asset custody, wallet and key-management capabilities, blockchain connectivity, transaction processing, and supporting platform services.
• Lead the design, architecture, and implementation of custody solutions with strong focus on security-by-design, cryptographic key protection, transaction integrity, access controls, auditability, and resilience.
• Design integrations with institutional custody and wallet technology providers, blockchain networks, node infrastructure, and downstream enterprise platforms.
• Establish secure patterns for the digital asset transaction lifecycle, including creation, validation, authorization, signing, submission, confirmation, and reconciliation.
• Partner with cybersecurity, technology risk, compliance, legal, operations, and product teams to translate requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Own production readiness and reliability, including CI/CD, monitoring/observability, incident management, disaster recovery, business continuity, and secure release management for critical services.
• Implement engineering practices covering secure coding, automated testing, threat modeling, vulnerability management, code review, security testing, and production controls.

Skills

Blockchain systems

Cloud architecture AWS

CI/CD & DevSecOps

Security by design

Cryptography

Smart contracts

Leadership

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Node/RPC infrastructure

Blockchain networks

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

We’re seeking a Blockchain Engineer to join our Digital Assets Platform Technology team. The role will focus on designing and building scalable, secure, and regulatory-compliant platform capabilities that enable the Firm’s digital asset ecosystem, including digital asset custody, tokenization, blockchain connectivity, and smart contract services. This role combines deep technical expertise in blockchain and distributed systems with strong engineering leadership to deliver resilient, enterprise-grade capabilities that can support digital asset use cases across the firm. In the Technology division, we leverage innovation to build the connections and capabilities that power our Firm, enabling our clients and colleagues to redefine markets and shape the future of our communities. This is Director or Vice President position that develops and maintains software solutions that support business needs. Since 1935, Morgan Stanley is known as a global leader in financial services, always evolving and innovating to better serve our clients and our communities in more than 40 countries around the world.

What You’ll Do In The Role

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional engineering team responsible for building secure, scalable, and resilient digital asset custody capabilities within the Digital Assets Platform.
• Define the engineering roadmap for digital asset custody, wallet and key-management capabilities, blockchain connectivity, transaction processing, and supporting platform services.
• Lead the design, architecture, and implementation of custody solutions with a strong focus on security-by-design, protection of cryptographic keys, transaction integrity, segregation of duties, access controls, auditability, and operational resilience.
• Design integrations with institutional custody and wallet technology providers, blockchain networks, node infrastructure, and downstream enterprise platforms.
• Establish secure patterns for the digital asset transaction lifecycle, including transaction creation, policy validation, authorization, signing, submission to blockchain networks, confirmation, and reconciliation.
• Partner closely with cybersecurity, technology risk, compliance, legal, operations, and product teams to translate custody, regulatory, security, and operational-control requirements into robust technical solutions.
• Own production readiness and reliability, including CI/CD, monitoring and observability, incident management, disaster recovery, business continuity, and secure release management for critical digital asset services.
• Implement rigorous engineering practices covering secure coding, automated testing, threat modeling, vulnerability management, code review, security testing, and production controls.

What You’ll Bring To The Role

• 7+ years of relevant technology experience, typically supported by a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
• 3+ years of hands‑on experience with digital assets, blockchain, tokenization, or distributed‑ledger technologies, preferably delivering production solutions.
• Strong experience with cloud‑native architecture and infrastructure, preferably AWS, together with CI/CD, DevSecOps, containerization, infrastructure‑as‑code, and modern platform‑engineering practices.
• Strong understanding of digital asset and blockchain architecture, including distributed ledgers, consensus mechanisms, smart contracts, cryptography, transaction lifecycle, and on‑chain/off‑chain integration patterns.
• Experience integrating institutional custody and wallet infrastructure, including key management, secure transaction signing, custody providers, and wallet orchestration.
• Understanding of tokenization and smart‑contract platforms, including common token standards such as ERC‑20, ERC‑721, and permissioned/security‑token patterns, and experience integrating these capabilities into enterprise applications.
• Understanding of institutional digital asset transaction and settlement workflows, including custody, transfer, tokenized assets, Delivery versus Payment (DvP), and on‑chain/off‑chain settlement.
• Familiarity with the broader digital asset technology ecosystem, including node/RPC infrastructure, blockchain connectivity, stablecoins, and third‑party digital asset service providers.

What You Can Expect From Morgan Stanley

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients – helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that’s differentiated – and we’ve done that for 90 years. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren’t just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work‑life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There’s also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices into your browser.

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between:

For Director level - NY & CA - $120,000 - $170,000

For VP Level - NY & CA- $155,000 - $215,000

per year at the commencement of employment. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, incentive compensation, discretionary bonuses, other short and long‑term incentive packages, and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background. Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross-section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

For more information, please visit: https://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/eeo.