Forward Development Engineer
Digital Asset · New York +5 · 9h ago
About Digital Asset & the Canton Network
Digital Asset builds the technologies that are reshaping the foundations of financial markets. Our mission is to create the world’s most trusted, privacy-enabled, and interoperable digital infrastructure for global finance.
At the heart of this mission is the Canton Network - the blockchain purpose-built for institutional finance. Uniquely combining privacy, compliance, and scalability, Canton enables real-time, secure settlement across multiple asset classes. Governed by the Canton Foundation with participation from leading financial institutions, it is the proven link between the promise of blockchain and the power of global finance.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in New York City, with offices in London, Zurich, Budapest, Hong Kong, and Sydney— we are on a mission to transform finance— and that transformation is now playing out rapidly on the Canton Network.
If you’re interested in playing a crucial role at the intersection of traditional and crypto-capital markets and want to help bring the next trillion dollars of finance on-chain, join us.
About the role:
The Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is DA's most forward-leaning technical role: part of CX Engineering, but operating ahead of signed deals — in the room with a prospective client's engineering and risk teams, building the prototype that proves the Canton Network can solve their problem before anyone signs anything. The FDE moves between two modes: heads-down building — prototyping smart contracts and registry apps on Canton and Daml, wiring up DA Registry and DA Utilities components, standing up a demo environment overnight — and heads-up presenting — walking a bank's Head of Digital Assets or a stablecoin issuer's CTO through the architecture you just built and defending it under real technical scrutiny. The FDE works directly with Sales, Solutions Design, and Network Strategy to deliver working code.
Responsibilities:
- Owns the technical narrative for strategic prospective and early-stage clients — translates a prospect's problem statement into a working Canton Network prototype, registry model, or demo application in days to weeks, not quarters
- Designs and builds prototype and demo code on Canton and Daml — smart contracts, registry apps, DA Registry and DA Utilities components, integration adapters — that hold up to technical scrutiny from engineers at the world's largest banks, financial market infrastructures, and crypto-native and stablecoin companies
- Partners directly with prospective clients' engineering, risk, and product teams to scope proof-of-concept and pilot architectures across asset tokenization, collateral mobility, on-chain payments, and stablecoin use cases
- Serves as DA's technical face in front of senior engineering and business audiences at financial market infrastructures (clearinghouses, custodians, exchanges, CSDs) and the largest crypto-native and stablecoin companies — translating Canton Network and Global Synchronizer concepts so they land with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Builds reusable prototyping accelerators, registry templates, and demo assets that shorten the path from first conversation to signed pilot for the rest of CX Engineering and Solutions Design
- Feeds field learnings back into DA Product and Engineering — the gaps you hit building a demo for a tier-one bank or a stablecoin issuer are exactly the signal Product needs to prioritize the roadmap
- Partners with Sales, Solutions Design, and Network Strategy to shape deal scope, sequence delivery, and pull in the right specialists at the right time
- Acts as a senior technical resource for New York-based and headquarters-facing engagements with financial market infrastructures and global banks headquartered in or near New York
- Assumes additional duties and responsibilities from time to time, as needed
What We're Looking For:
- Able to leverage previous experience in software engineering to deliver production-grade systems fast and credible prototypes under deal-cycle time pressure
- Knowledge and experience with Daml, Canton Network and ability to ramp up quickly
- Comfortable owning a client-facing technical relationship at the CTO / Head of Engineering / Head of Digital Assets level without support — able to design an architecture live in a room and defend it under questioning
- Full-stack builder: equally comfortable in smart contract/registry logic, backend integration, and enough front-end to make a demo land
- Strong financial services or capital markets domain knowledge — fluency in how a clearinghouse, custodian, bank, or stablecoin issuer actually operates
- Experience scoping and building proofs of concept or pilots in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where requirements are still being discovered
- Consistent ability translating complex technical concepts for both senior technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Curious, pragmatic, low-ego, and energized by being dropped into a new problem every few weeks
- Able to travel to client sites domestically and internationally as needed (estimated 30–40%)
#LI-Hybrid
At Digital Asset, we are committed to compensation structures that reward impact consistently across our global teams. We support our people at every stage of life with comprehensive, family-forward benefits and flexible working models designed to help you do your best work.
Benefits We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the well-being of our team members. Health and insurance benefits vary by region to ensure local relevance and compliance, and may include medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Equal Opportunity Employer Digital Asset is an equal opportunity employer committed. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, citizenship status, veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.
Employment Eligibility If and as required by applicable law, all persons hired to work at Digital Asset will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the location for which they have an offer to work and to complete the necessary employment eligibility verification documents upon hire.
Accommodations Applicants with disabilities who require accommodation during the application or interview process should contact talent@digitalasset.com.
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