Technology & Payments Blueprint Advisor (CBDC)

Technology & Payments Blueprint Advisor (CBDC)

The Bank of England is the UK's central bank. Our mission is to deliver monetary and financial stability for the British people.

The Bank of England is a diverse organisation. Each of its 4,000 plus people are committed to public service and dedicated to promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability.

We are recruiting for a Technology & Payments Blueprint Advisor within the Technology team of the Bank of England’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Unit. This is a high-profile, varied, and exciting area within the Bank. The role offers the opportunity to help shape the potential future of money itself!

We welcome applications from a range of backgrounds. The nature of the project means that candidates should be flexible, adaptable, and willing to take on a variety of problems with enthusiasm. This is a challenging but exciting job and would suit innovative, versatile candidates from a range of technical backgrounds who are critical thinkers. You will be a senior thought leader and strategic advisor on CBDC and work closely with the Head of Digital Currency Technology, Head of Digital Pound Project and Senior Managers to co-ordinate and ensure the alignment of the blueprint for the digital pound.

The Project Area

Like other central banks, the Bank of England is actively exploring whether it should develop and issue a retail CBDC. We call the UK version of CBDC ‘the digital pound’. A potential digital pound would – like banknotes – be a form of money issued by the central bank for everyone to use for day-to-day spending but, as the name implies, in a digital format. No decision has yet been taken on whether to issue a digital pound.

In February 2023, HM Treasury and the Bank of England issued a Consultation Paper setting out an assessment of the motivations and design choices for a potential digital pound, alongside a Technology Working Paper which outlines our emerging thinking on CBDC technology. These papers signal that our work will now move onto a design phase, which will look at the technology and policy requirements for a digital pound.

The CBDC Unit is responsible for analysing the opportunities and challenges presented by CBDC and developing the design of a digital pound. The Unit’s activities include macroeconomic analysis, work on functional design, exploration of technology options, and engaging private-sector and international counterparts.

The Role

We are looking for diverse, creative, and technically minded individuals to join a team of technology specialists, working alongside a wider team of economics and policy focused colleagues.

The responsibility of the job holder will be to shape the technology design and liaise across the CBDC unit to co-ordinate and align the blueprint architecture options for a potential retail CBDC. This will involve evaluating the technology choices which might deliver the functional and non-functional requirements and developing a deep understanding of the range of underlying design features for a potential CBDC . The successful applicant will:

• Be comfortable acting as a thought leader in a high-profile programme of work on a topic of strategic significance.
• Provide expert knowledge on relevant technology disciplines, as well as direction, and collaborative leadership to our CBDC technology work.
• Work with teams from across the CBDC unit to co-ordinate and align work on the digital pound blueprint to enable the teams to deliver
• Provide expert knowledge and application of existing and innovative payment systems and be able to apply that knowledge to CBDC
• Demonstrate expert appreciation of the strategic and policy drivers around CBDC, in order to proactively engage in critical thinking about technology challenges and opportunities.
• Line manage colleagues within the technology team and guide their technical development.
• Devise technical solutions to difficult and unique problems independently, with team members or with external authorities as required.
• Establish relationships and nurture small project teams in a collaborative way to validate & prototype technical solutions.
• Recommend solutions to problems, and explain and rationalise design choices, especially when multiple options are available.
• Apply judgement and critical thinking based on evaluating multiple sources of information.
• Communicate clearly orally and in writing, and demonstrate comfort advising and influencing with senior stakeholders and representing the Bank both domestically and internationally

The role will also involve interaction with senior internal colleagues, technical experts, external expertise across the industry and academia, and counterparts at other central banks. Therefore, the ability to build relationships and promote inclusive thinking is essential.

Role Requirements

Essential Criteria

• An innovative approach to problem solving and the ability to think creatively and critically about solutions.
• Experience in conceiving and guiding the design of complex technology and business solutions.
• Knowledge and understanding of existing payment systems in the UK.
• Experience designing new payments systems
• The ability to set the strategic direction for large pieces of technical and non-technical work.
• A willingness to advocate strategies and solutions, and conduct innovative research, providing summarised results and recommendations. The ability to justify design choices based on research where multiple options might exist.
• Collaborative stakeholder management skills, and the capability to synthesise and present technical information to a non-technical audience.
• Strong interpersonal skills, and a collaborative and inclusive working style, with experience of effective liaison with a diverse set of partners.
• Experience in developing and line managing colleagues.

Desirable Criteria (we are seeking a mix of technical skills, but would not necessarily expect all of the below)

• Knowledge and understanding of existing payment systems in the UK.
• Exposure to software development projects, ideally within a financial or regulatory environment.
• Product management experience, or related expertise in areas such as Agile methodology, design thinking, user experience design.
• Software development experience, including in areas such as API development, database structures, blockchain technology etc.
• Knowledge of data architecture and different data structures including Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
• Awareness and curiosity about trends across wider technology e.g. fintech, blockchain, cloud, predictive analytics, Big Data, cyber security etc.
• Knowledge of support, operational, and monitoring procedures of large software systems.
• An interest in CBDC or the future of money.

Our Approach to Inclusion

The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion. We play a key role in maintaining monetary and financial stability, and to do that effectively, we believe we need a workforce that reflects the society we serve.

At the Bank of England we want all colleagues to feel valued and respected, so we're working hard to build an inclusive culture which supports people from all backgrounds and communities to be at their best at work. We celebrate all forms of diversity, including (but not limited to) age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We believe that it’s by drawing on different perspectives and experiences that we’ll continue to make the best decisions for the public.

We welcome applications from individuals who work flexibly, including job shares and part time working patterns. We've also partnered with external organisations to support us in making adjustments for candidates and employees in the recruitment process where they're needed.

For most roles where work can be carried out at home, we aim for colleagues to spend half of their time in the office, with a minimum of 40% per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them, their team and stakeholders.

Finally, we're proud to be a member of the Disability Confident Scheme. If you wish to apply under this scheme, you should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

Salary and Benefits Information

This specific role offers a base salary of circa £92,000 - £106,000 per annum (depending on skills and experience) on a full-time basis.

In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package as detailed below:

• A non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/95th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/50th) or decrease (to 1/120th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year.
• A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
• A 7% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits. (Note that from April 2023 and for the Benefits year 2023/24, this will increase to 8%)
• 26 days’ annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
• Private medical insurance and income protection.

National Security Vetting Process

Employment in this role will be subject to the National Security Vetting clearance process (and typically can take between 6 to 12 weeks post offer) and the passing of additional Bank security checks in accordance with the Bank policy. Further information regarding the vetting and security clearance requirements for the role will be provided to the successful applicant, and information about how the Bank processes personal data for these purposes, is set out in the Bank's Privacy Notice

The Application Process

Important: Please ensure that you complete the ‘work history’ section and answer ALL the application questions fully. All candidate applications are anonymised to ensure that our hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information, including your CV, when reviewing your application details at the screening stage. It’s therefore really important that you fill out the work history and application form questions, as your answers will form a critical part of the initial selection process.

The closing date for applications is 4th February 2024.

The assessment process will comprise of two stages of interview; and may include a technical test / technical written task additionally, as part of the interview process.