Director, Digital Assets Platform

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This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of digital assets at BMO by leading the development of a new enterprise-wide Digital Assets Platform. As the business Product Owner, you will drive the strategy, roadmap, and delivery of innovative capabilities across tokenization, digital payments, distributed ledger technology, and digital asset infrastructure. Working closely with senior executives, technology leaders, and stakeholders across Commercial Banking, Capital Markets, Wealth, and Retail Banking, you will play a pivotal role in transforming how value moves across the financial ecosystem. Ideal for a builder who thrives in ambiguity, this highly visible role offers the chance to create and scale a strategic platform from the ground up while establishing yourself as a trusted Digital Assets leader within one of North America's leading financial institutions.

Build the platform that will help shape the future of money and financial markets at BMO.

BMO is building enterprise digital asset capabilities that connect the trust, balance sheet and control environment of a leading North American bank with the speed, programmability and new market models enabled by tokenization. The ambition is to create one reusable platform that can support client products across Treasury and Payment Solutions, Commercial Banking, Capital Markets, Wealth Management, Personal & Business Banking and other lines of business.

This is a strategic but hands-on build mandate. This role will help BMO take strategy, market participation and early use cases to working, commercial capabilities. The role will shape how tokenized deposits, regulated stablecoins, tokenized cash, digital asset settlement, collateral and liquidity services can be designed, launched and scaled within a regulated bank.

If you have built digital asset or fintech products in industry and want to apply that experience to an enterprise platform with meaningful client reach, this is an opportunity to build the foundation, not simply manage an established product.

The Director, Digital Assets Platform is the end-to-end business product owner for BMO’s shared Digital Assets Platform. The role owns the platform product vision, roadmap and backlog and translates enterprise use cases into scalable capabilities, complete client and operating journeys, and commercially viable products.

Acting as both a strategic leader and hands-on product builder, this individual works across lines of business to identify client problems, map end-to-end flows and define how each proposition creates client value and economic value for BMO. The role partners closely with platform engineering leads in Technology and Operations and other functions such as Finance, Treasury, Legal, Risk, Compliance, AML, Fraud, Cyber and Privacy to ensure products are secure, resilient, compliant and operationally ready by design.

The candidate also brings an external market perspective, working with clients, industry networks, consortiums, fintechs and infrastructure providers to inform product choices and selectively accelerate delivery while preserving BMO ownership of the strategy, architecture, client experience and critical control points.

• Own and continuously evolve the enterprise product vision, strategy, roadmap and outcomes for BMO’s shared Digital Assets Platform.
• Translate BMO’s digital assets strategy into a sequenced multi-year build plan, operating plans, investment priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Define the common platform capabilities that should be built once and reused across products, lines of business, networks and jurisdictions.
• Maintain a clear view of market structure, client demand, competitive developments and regulatory change, and convert insights into product decisions.
• Make disciplined build, buy and partner recommendations in collaboration with Engineering, Architecture, Procurement and enterprise stakeholders.

• Partner with product, sales and business leaders across BMO to identify and prioritize use cases with clear client value, strategic relevance and credible economics.
• Map complete end-to-end journeys, including client initiation, onboarding, money movement, ledger treatment, settlement, servicing, exception management, accounting, reconciliation, reporting and support.
• Develop product propositions, target segments, business cases, pricing and revenue logic, go-to-market plans, adoption measures and benefit-realization plans.
• Own the product lifecycle from discovery and validation through design, build, approval, launch, adoption, enhancement and, where appropriate, retirement.
• Use client feedback, pilots and market participation to validate outcomes and scale the capabilities that demonstrate value.

• Translate business and client needs into an outcome-based roadmap, product requirements, user journeys, acceptance criteria and prioritized backlog.
• Partner with the Senior Engineering Manager / Architect to shape reusable capabilities for tokenization, wallet and custody connectivity, identity and permissions, programmability, network orchestration, settlement, reconciliation, data, reporting and controls.
• Lead product delivery across priority domains that may include tokenized deposits, cross-border money movement, regulated stablecoin services, tokenized cash, digital asset settlement, collateral and intraday liquidity, and tokenized fund or asset servicing.
• Establish product governance, delivery cadences, decision forums, escalation paths and launch-readiness criteria that keep interdependent workstreams aligned.
• Track progress, budget, dependencies, risks, quality, client adoption and business outcomes; provide concise recommendations and updates to senior leadership.

• Act as the connective tissue across client need, line-of-business ownership, product design, engineering, operations and control readiness.
• Create shared accountability across Technology, Operations, Finance, Treasury, Legal, Risk, Compliance, AML, Fraud, Cyber, Privacy and other enterprise partners.
• Work within a federated model in which the Digital Assets team owns the reusable platform agenda and enterprise coordination, while lines of business own client propositions, economics, commercialization and benefit realization.
• Resolve dependencies, remove blockers and surface decisions early to maintain momentum across complex, multi-stream initiatives.
• Represent the platform agenda in enterprise governance forums and help establish repeatable intake, prioritization and performance-management disciplines.

• Engage clients and frontline teams to understand pain points, validate propositions and inform product design and commercialization.
• Evaluate fintechs, infrastructure providers, networks and consortium opportunities based on strategic fit, solution capability, regulatory readiness, integration complexity and economics.
• Lead or support vendor and strategic partner selection, onboarding and performance management without outsourcing BMO’s product ownership.
• Contribute to client acquisition, strategic relationship development and go-to-market activity for new digital asset products and services.
• Represent BMO in selected industry discussions and translate external developments into actionable implications for the platform roadmap.

• Embed regulatory, legal, compliance, financial-crime, security, privacy, accounting, model-risk, operational-risk and resilience requirements into product design from inception.
• Partner with control functions to define decision rights, approval requirements, controls, monitoring and evidence needed for launch and ongoing operation.
• Ensure solutions are designed for institutional-grade security, scalability, auditability, operational resilience and 24x7 service requirements where applicable.
• Identify emerging risks and regulatory implications, bring forward options and recommendations, and ensure issues are tracked and addressed.

• Help build a high-performing digital assets product capability with clear standards, strong product discipline and a culture of accountability, collaboration and learning.
• Provide direction and coaching to product resources and cross-functional delivery teams, including colleagues who may not report directly to the role.
• Contribute to workforce planning, specialist talent development and the evolution of the Digital Assets operating model as the platform scales.

• Minimum 5+ years of relevant experience and a post-secondary degree in Business, Finance, Computer Science, Engineering or a related field of study, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated experience building or scaling products in digital assets, fintech, payments, custody, trading, tokenization, market infrastructure, treasury services or a closely related field.
• Proven record of taking complex products from ambiguous concept through business case, design, technology delivery, control approval, launch and adoption.
• Strong understanding of digital asset market structure and one or more of the following: blockchain or distributed ledger technology, tokenized deposits, stablecoins, tokenized securities or funds, wallets, custody, smart contracts, trading, settlement, payments, collateral or liquidity.
• Product-management depth across product vision, client discovery, journey mapping, requirements, prioritization, backlog management, commercialization, performance measurement and lifecycle management.
• Sufficient technical fluency to work credibly with engineers and architects on APIs, ledgers, transaction flows, integration patterns, data, security and non-functional requirements without serving as the lead engineer.
• Experience operating in a complex, highly regulated environment and partnering effectively with Technology, Operations, Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance and senior executives.
• Experience evaluating and managing vendors, strategic partners or industry consortiums and making build, buy and partner decisions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex infrastructure understandable to clients, executives, product teams, engineers and control partners.
• Strong influencing, negotiation and decision-making skills, including the ability to create accountability and deliver outcomes in a matrixed environment.
• Experience in banking or capital markets is an asset. Direct operating experience within a digital asset, crypto, blockchain or financial infrastructure company is also highly valued.

The above represents BMO Financial Group’s pay range and type.

Salaries will vary based on factors such as location, skills, experience, education, and qualifications for the role, and may include a commission structure. Salaries for part-time roles will be pro-rated based on number of hours regularly worked. For commission roles, the salary listed above represents BMO Financial Group’s expected target for the first year in this position.

BMO Financial Group’s total compensation package will vary based on the pay type of the position and may include performance-based incentives, discretionary bonuses, as well as other perks and rewards. BMO also offers health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans. To view more details of our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/global/en/Total-Rewards

About Us

At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.

As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact. We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers. We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in-depth training and coaching, to manager support and network-building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.

To find out more visit us at https://jobs.bmo.com/ca/en.

BMO is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. By learning from each other’s differences, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. To request accommodation, please contact your recruiter.

Note to Recruiters: BMO does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to BMO, directly or indirectly, will be considered BMO property. BMO will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. A recruiting agency must first have a valid, written and fully executed agency agreement contract for service to submit resumes.