San Francisco Fed hiring for digital currency development

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is looking for software developers to assist in the research and design of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

One job listing posted on LinkedIn is for a “Senior Application Architect – Digital Currency.” It was posted on LinkedIn less than a day ago, and after catching attention across the crypto space, it already received 23 applicants.

A digital central bank currency is a tokenized version of a country’s fiat currency. Like stablecoins, a CBDC’s value tracks the value of a currency issued by a government such as the US dollar. But instead of being managed by private companies, a CBDC is issued by a central bank such as the Federal Reserve.

The position is one of three job postings originally published 18 days ago on Federal Reserve System Careers website. In addition to the Senior Application Architect, the federal bank is also hiring a Lead application developer and a Senior application developer for digital currency.

The Senior Application Architect hired by the San Francisco Fed will play a critical role in both designing a CBDC and overseeing its development, according to the job posting, and will be responsible for both mentoring engineers and developing roadmaps that “balance tactical and strategic needs” related to to the project. One of the position’s qualifications is experience working with digital payment systems, cryptocurrencies or other CBDCs.

“Given the important role of the dollar, the Federal Reserve System is seeking to further understand the costs and benefits of the potential technologies for central bank digital currencies,” the notice said.

The post goes on to say that the team developing a CBDC has “the feel of a startup,” and that the Senior Application Architect role lists a salary range of between $134,900 and $215,400.

The lead application developer and senior application developer positions are intended to “implement example systems related to a central bank’s digital currency” and will be paid up to $215,400 and $176,300, respectively. All three positions are based in San Francisco.

A growing number of countries across the globe are either developing a CBDC or actively piloting one, according to the US think tank Atlantic Council. The the think tank’s website notes that 114 countries representing over 95% of global GDP are exploring a CBDC.

Seventeen countries, including Russia and China, are currently piloting a CBDC, while 33 nations are developing one, such as the US and Japan, which announced last Friday, the CBDC pilot program will launch in April. 11 countries have fully launched a CBDC, including the Bahamas and Nigeria.

Countries like China continue to test their version of a CBDC – referred to as digital yuan— which now reaches 260 million people and is to be expanded this year. In response, the US has increasingly focused on its version of a tokenized US dollar.

“We’re doing a lot of work,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell so last June, citing guidance on implementing a CBDC that Congress will eventually receive from the US Federal Reserve. “I think that’s something we really need to explore as a country.”

The Fed has been considering a CBDC since 2017, and a pilot program for US-based financial institutions was launched in New York in November, where the banks said they would work closely with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to test a digital currency platform.

The platform is referred to as the Regulated Liability Network (RLN) and is a proof-of-concept that includes participants such as Mastercard and Wells Fargo. However, the project only uses simulated data, where digital tokens represent customer deposits, and “is not intended to advance any specific policy outcome” on CDBCs. tired.

ONE symposium hosted by the San Fransisco Fed in September discussed CBDCs and whether the US could lean into the technology due to FOMO – fear of missing out – according to Federal Reserve Chief Innovation Officer Sunayna Tuteja.

“I think it’s a predicate like, oh, [CBDCs are] a shiny new object,” she said. “And we should be careful about that, because often this momentum is: ‘Oh my God, a central bank has to do something […] because we’re trying to chase a shiny object syndrome or because we’re doing it based on a theory of FOMO, which never goes away.”

During the chat, Tuteja said that a US CBDC is “very much in the research and questioning phase,” but it appears that the Fed is now setting its scope on developments based on descriptions of the new job postings.

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and senior talent acquisition specialist Shanthi Balasubramanian did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Decrypt.