IT Director - Digital Assets Delivery

What You'll Do

We’re seeking a technology leader to build and scale Western Alliance Bank’s Digital Assets Technology team – a new platform driving the bank’s vision to deliver Digital Wallets, Stablecoin, and Crypto-as-a-Service for institutional and retail clients.

As an IT Director, you will lead the delivery of technology solutions by partnering with other technology teams (e.g. Architecture, Infrastructure, Engineering, and Support), business leaders, strategic partners, and third‑party technology providers. You will collaborate with internal business partners to proactively address ongoing customer needs and ensure rapid resolution to open issues, fostering a collaborative environment focused on continuous improvement and delivery of working software.

In this role you will drive strategic planning for the delivery of products and services, evaluate technology, set standards, recommend improvements to established business processes, and continue to deliver high value in execution. You will be accountable for creating comprehensive project plans, removing impediments, and tracking overall project performance to achieve business short‑term and long‑term goals.

• Manage large matrixed teams across multiple domains working on complex problems and solutions. Develop user manuals, as well as policies, procedures, and safety protocols for presentation to larger IT and the enterprise.
• Participate in building the IT organization’s strategy for employee development, retention, resource allocation, talent management, performance management, and achieve a diverse and engaged workforce, as well as recruit, train, and evaluate staff members’ work.
• Participate in the annual budget planning and management process as well as business cases reviews, execution plans, and operating plans for their teams.
• Ensure adequate risk management and cyber security processes and controls are established and maintained in alignment with the risk appetite for the Bank as well as any applicable regulatory and enterprise risk management expectations.
• Build and scale the Digital Assets engineering organization, defining structure, operating model, and technical direction for wallets, tokenization, and custody platforms.
• Lead Agile delivery teams developing customer‑facing portals and API‑first platforms enabling asset issuance, transfer, and reconciliation.
• Own the technology roadmap, balancing innovation with enterprise standards for safety, security, and compliance.
• Champion engineering, people, and process excellence, embedding strong SDLC governance, Dev Sec Ops , and Continuous Delivery practices.
• Design and integrate Crypto‑as‑a‑Service capabilities and Stablecoin settlement models with core banking and payments systems.
• Partner with Product, Operations, Sales, Risk, and Compliance to align digital‑asset priorities with business objectives.
• Improve engineering productivity and automation through modern development tools and Generative AI applications.
• Manage vendor relationships, ensuring strategic alignment.

• 10+ years of related experience or similar field.
• Bachelor’s degree in related field required.
• Previous leadership experience required.
• Intermediate to advanced knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.
• Intermediate to advanced knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards and practices.
• Strong experience in API design, microservices, and customer‑facing UI development (React, Angular, or equivalent).
• Understanding of digital wallets, stablecoin architectures, custody models, and crypto compliance frameworks (KYC/AML, chain monitoring, reconciliation).
• Proven ability to build new teams, attract talent, and foster a culture of innovation and accountability.
• Experience implementing Agile and Dev Ops practices with strong SDLC controls and traceability.
• Strong collaboration skills with Product, Operations, and Risk functions to translate innovation into regulated environments.
• Familiarity with Generative AI tools for engineering efficiency and automation of business operations.
• Excellent executive communication, stakeholder influence,…