Principal Architect - Digital Assets & Tokenization

Iris's client, one of the Top 5 Bank in Canada is looking to hire a Principal Architect - Digital Assets & Tokenization for a long-term contract opportunity.

Our client is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000 employees worldwide. Bank is serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services.

Job Title: Principal Architect - Digital Assets & Tokenization

Location: Toronto, ON / NYC, NY (Hybrid-2-3 Days onsite/week)

Open-ended Long-Term contract

Required Experience

• Experience leading architecture for production-grade Web3 or digital asset applications.
• Proven track record guiding live tokenization platforms, real-world asset solutions, or institutional crypto custody systems from concept through production governance.
• Strong architectural understanding of enterprise EVM nodes, such as Hyperledger Besu, and blockchain infrastructure platforms such as Kaleido or Blockdaemon.
• Experience defining integration approaches for programmatic MPC wallet infrastructure, e.g. DFNS, Fireblocks, or Turnkey.
• Deep understanding of smart contract security risks, audit governance, and gas optimization tradeoffs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with Zero-Knowledge proofs, including zk-SNARKs and zk-STARKs, for privacy-preserving asset transactions.
• Hands-on experience deploying a tokenization solution for real-world assets, digital securities, funds, stablecoins, or institutional digital asset workflows.
• Familiarity with institutional settlement systems, including FIX protocol, Swift, and ISO 20022 messaging.
• Hands-on open-source contributions to major Web3 frameworks, Ethereum Improvement Proposals, or tokenization standards.
• Certifications in AWS or GCP cloud architecture, blockchain security, or related disciplines.

Overview

• We are seeking a highly experienced Full Stack Architect specializing in digital assets and tokenization to lead enterprise architecture, solution strategy, and governance for blockchain-enabled platforms.
• In this strategic role, you will bridge traditional financial infrastructure and decentralized systems by defining target-state architectures for tokenization platforms supporting real-world assets, digital securities, utility tokens, and institutional custody workflows.
• You will provide architectural direction across backend services, decentralized application experiences, smart contract ecosystems, public EVM and Layer 2 networks, enterprise permissioned chains, and managed Blockchain-as-a-Service platforms.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture and Platform Design

• Define scalable, end-to-end tokenization architectures that align user experiences, middleware services, indexers, custody capabilities, and smart contract ecosystems.
• Provide solution direction for enterprise-grade blockchain nodes and Blockchain-as-a-Service environments, including Hyperledger Besu, Quorum, Corda, Kaleido, and Blockdaemon, to support compliant, privacy-preserving network topologies.
• Own critical architectural decisions by authoring and championing Architectural Decision Records, driving stakeholder reviews, and guiding decisions through formal architecture governance channels.
• Design, communicate, and socialize end-to-end target-state architectures, solution blueprints, and strategic technology roadmaps.
• Create consensus across cross-functional leadership and engineering teams, proactively navigating competing priorities to resolve complex or controversial technical decisions.
• Elevate team capability by mentoring developers and architects, fostering continuous technical growth, and supporting succession planning.
• Partner with engineering leaders throughout the delivery lifecycle to ensure implementations remain aligned with approved target-state architectures.

Tokenization and Smart Contract Engineering

• Set architectural direction for tokenized real-world assets, debt, equities, funds, and stablecoins using standards such as ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155, ERC-3643/T-REX, and ERC-1400.
• Define governance expectations for smart contract testing, formal verification, and upgradeability patterns, including ERC-2535 Diamond Standard and proxy contracts.
• Oversee protocol security audit strategy with third-party security firms and ensure remediation plans are incorporated into release governance.

Full Stack Technical Leadership

• Define architectural standards for React and Next.js frontends that interact with Web3 libraries such as Ethers.js, Viem, and Wagmi.
• Guide architectural patterns for scalable backend services in Node.js, Go, or Rust, with emphasis on reliability, maintainability, and production readiness.
• Custody, Key Management, and Institutional UX
• Shape enterprise integration strategy for MPC wallet infrastructure providers such as DFNS, Fireblocks, BitGo, Turnkey, and Anchorage, as well as Hardware Security Modules for transaction signing and treasury management.
• Define user experience architecture for account abstraction, including ERC-4337, social logins, and gasless transaction relayers such as Biconomy and Gelato, to support seamless institutional onboarding.

Regulatory and Compliance Technology

• Establish architectural requirements for on-chain and off-chain identity management, including KYC/AML accreditation rules, transfer restriction engines, and transaction monitoring tools such as Chainalysis and Elliptic.
• Ensure solution designs support regulatory compliance, auditability, and operational controls across tokenized asset workflows.

About Iris Software Inc.

With 4,000+ associates and offices in India, U.S.A. and Canada, Iris Software delivers technology services and solutions that help clients complete fast, far-reaching digital transformations and achieve their business goals. A strategic partner to Fortune 500 and other top companies in financial services and many other industries, Iris provides a value-driven approach - a unique blend of highly-skilled specialists, software engineering expertise, cutting-edge technology, and flexible engagement models. High customer satisfaction has translated into long-standing relationships and preferred-partner status with many of our clients, who rely on our 30+ years of technical and domain expertise to future-proof their enterprises. Associates of Iris work on mission-critical applications supported by a workplace culture that has won numerous awards in the last few years, including Certified Great Place to Work in India; Top 25 GPW in IT & IT-BPM; Ambition Box Best Place to Work, #3 in IT/ITES; and Top Workplace NJ-USA.