CIBC

Sr. Director, Block-Chain Application Engineering

CIBC$150K — $180K *
Finance & Insurance
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of technology experience, including 5+ years in senior engineering leadership in finance or regulated industries.
  • Deep knowledge of enterprise blockchain architecture, smart contracts, and tokenized deposits.
  • Familiarity with Canadian banking regulations and compliance, including cybersecurity and AML obligations.
  • Proven ability to transform business strategy into actionable delivery plans with tight resource management.
  • Exceptional communication skills for conveying complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
  • Strong leadership values emphasizing trust, accountability, and teamwork.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the development of the Digital Assets engineering practice and team structure.
  • Oversee the engineering roadmap and ensure effective delivery of the tokenized deposits program.
  • Chair critical architecture decisions and enforce rigorous quality standards for code and deployment.
  • Collabore with risk and compliance teams to ensure adherence to security and regulatory protocols.
  • Manage vendor relationships and conduct technical assessments for service providers.
  • Communicate progress and challenges effectively to senior stakeholders and regulators.

Benefits

  • Competitive salary and incentive pay with tailored recognition programs.
  • Comprehensive benefits program including banking perks and a defined benefit pension plan.
  • Employee share purchase plan and generous vacation offerings.
  • Wellbeing support programs emphasizing employee growth and career development opportunities.
  • Innovative workspaces and technology to facilitate collaboration and solution creation.
Full 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.


*Subject to plan and program terms and conditions

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

About CIBC

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The bank is headquartered at Commerce Court in the city's Financial District. CIBC's Institution Number is 010, and its SWIFT code is CIBCCATT. It is one of two Big Five banks founded in Toronto, the other being the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was formed through the June 1, 1961, merger of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada, the largest merger between chartered banks in Canadian history. The bank has four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets. It has international operations in the United States, the Caribbean, Asia, and United Kingdom; Globally. CIBC serves more than eleven million clients, and has over 40,000 employees. The company ranks at number 172 on the Forbes Global 2000 listing.
Learn more about CIBC
Market Cap
$43.5 billion
Industry
Founded
1867
5 Year Trend
+8.8%

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