Director, Blockchain Platform Architect – Technology Incubation – R&D

Charles Schwab; Ann Arbor (MI); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with company match

Employee stock purchase plan

Sabbatical after 5 years of service

Parental leave and family benefits

Tuition reimbursement

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Job summary

Charles Schwab seeks a Blockchain Platform Architect to define enterprise‑grade blockchain and digital asset platform architecture. You will partner with engineering, security, risk, legal, and product to translate opportunities into scalable, secure designs that move from pilot to production.

You will own the target‑state architecture, guide API definitions, data models, and operational controls, and establish reusable patterns that accelerate incubation while meeting governance and resiliency

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, or related technical field.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience including delivering platforms or complex technology initiatives.
• Strong foundation in modern architectures, cloud-native development, and engineering best practices.

Responsibilities

• Own target-state architecture and technical roadmap for blockchain and digital asset platform capabilities.
• Design secure, scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems for experimentation and production use.
• Evaluate protocols, node infrastructure, custody patterns, and smart contract frameworks.
• Guide implementation with engineering teams and establish reusable platform patterns.
• Ensure designs meet enterprise controls, governance, security, and resiliency requirements.
• Define architecture documentation, reference models, and graduation criteria for production ownership.
• Act as technical advisor to leadership, translating architecture choices into business value and risk implications.

Skills

Blockchain fundamentals

Distributed systems

Cloud-native architectures

Security mindset

Stakeholder collaboration

DevSecOps practices

Architectural decision making

Communication skills

Leadership

Platform design

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure)

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Your opportunity

At Schwab, you’re empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us “challenge the status quo” and transform the finance industry together.

We believe in the importance of in‑office collaboration and fully intend for the selected candidate for this role to work on site in the specified location(s).

The Schwab Technology Services (STS) Research & Development team explores emerging technologies and turns them into practical capabilities that create measurable value across Schwab. We operate at the intersection of innovation and execution—rapidly testing ideas, partnering across the enterprise, and scaling what works.

The Blockchain Platform Architect will define and guide the architecture for enterprise‑grade blockchain and digital asset platforms within the Technology Incubation organization. Reporting to the Director of Technology, this role will translate emerging blockchain opportunities into secure, scalable, and operational‑ly resilient platform designs that can move from experimentation to enterprise adoption.

This architect will partner closely with engineering, cloud, security, enterprise architecture, risk, legal, compliance, product, and business stakeholders to design platforms that balance innovation speed with Schwab’s standards for security, resiliency, governance, and client trust.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the target‑state architecture and technical roadmap for blockchain and digital asset platform capabilities, including platform components, service boundaries, integration patterns, APIs, data models, and operational controls.
• Design secure, scalable, fault‑tolerant distributed systems that support experimentation, pilot delivery, and production use.
• Evaluate blockchain protocols, node infrastructure, custody patterns, smart contract frameworks, interoperability models, and blockchain data access strategies.
• Partner with engineering teams to guide implementation, review designs, resolve complex technical tradeoffs, and establish reusable platform patterns.
• Collaborate with security, risk, legal, compliance, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure platform designs meet enterprise controls, regulatory expectations, defense‑in‑depth principles, and operational resilience requirements.
• Define architecture documentation, reference models, decision records, design standards, and graduation criteria needed to move capabilities from prototype to sustainable ownership.
• Serve as a technical advisor to the Director of Technology and executive stakeholders by translating blockchain architecture choices into business value, risk implications, investment needs, and adoption paths.

Success Measures

• Blockchain platform initiatives have clear architecture direction, reusable patterns, documented tradeoffs, and measurable progress toward incubation milestones.
• Security, risk, compliance, and operational readiness requirements are built into the platform design early rather than added late in the delivery lifecycle.
• Engineering teams can move faster through common platform standards, reference architectures, reusable services, and clear decision records.
• The Director of Technology and executive stakeholders have clear visibility into platform maturity, technical risks, dependencies, and decisions required for enterprise adoption.

What you have

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a related technical field (advanced degree a plus).
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering including delivering platforms, or complex technology initiatives.
• Strong technical foundation in modern architectures, cloud‑native development, and engineering best practices; ability to guide technical decisions without needing to be the primary implementer.
• Demonstrated ability to influence across organizational boundaries and collaborate effectively with Product, Risk, Legal/Compliance, Security, and business stakeholders.
• Excellent communication skills—able to align leaders, and convey technical tradeoffs clearly.
• Deep experience designing and operating enterprise platforms, distributed systems, cloud‑native architectures, APIs, event‑driven patterns, observability, resiliency, and DevSecOps practices.
• Strong understanding of blockchain fundamentals, distributed ledger technologies, consensus mechanisms, cryptography, smart contracts, tokenization concepts, node operations, custody models, and digital asset transaction flows.
• Experience applying security and control patterns such as authentication, authorization, encryption, key management, secrets management, secure coding, vulnerability management, monitoring, and incident response readiness.
• Ability to work across ambiguous, emerging technology spaces while producing practical architecture artifacts, decision frameworks, and implementation guidance.
• Clear communication skills with the ability to influence engineers, architects, product partners, risk stakeholders, and senior leaders.

In addition to the salary range, this role is also eligible for bonus or incentive opportunities.

What’s in it for you

At Schwab, you’re empowered to shape your future. We champion your growth through meaningful work, continuous learning, and a culture of trust and collaboration—so you can build the skills to make a lasting impact. Our Hybrid Work and Flexibility approach balances our ongoing commitment to workplace flexibility, serving our clients, and our strong belief in the value of being together in person on a regular basis.

We offer a competitive benefits package that takes care of the whole you – both today and in the future:

• 401(k) with company match and Employee stock purchase plan
• Paid time for vacation, volunteering, and 28-day sabbatical after every 5 years of service for eligible positions
• Paid parental leave and family building benefits
• Tuition reimbursement
• Health, dental, and vision insurance