Chief Systems Architect (RWA Exchange Infrastructure)

Job Description

About KCS Capital

KCS Capital is designing Canada’s first non-retail, institutional-grade Real World Asset (RWA) exchange infrastructure, in collaboration with regulated banking partners. Our focus is on compliant, verifiable, bank-ready systems for asset tokenization, issuance, custody workflows, settlement, and reporting.

This is not a retail crypto platform. It is core financial infrastructure.

The Role

We are seeking a senior Chief Systems Architect to define and guide the end-to-end technical architecture of our institutional RWA exchange stack. This role begins as fractional/advisory and is equity-aligned, with the opportunity to expand as the platform matures.

You will work closely with founders, banking partners, and early engineers to translate vision into a credible, secure, and scalable system architecture suitable for regulated financial institutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Design the target-state architecture for an institutional RWA exchange, including identity, compliance, asset verification, issuance, custody integration, settlement, reconciliation, and reporting


• Define system boundaries, component interactions, data flows, and control points


• Advise on build vs buy decisions for core infrastructure (custody, KYC/AML, ledger, messaging, monitoring)


• Establish security-by-design principles, auditability, and operational controls aligned with bank expectations


• Develop a practical technical roadmap with clear milestones (0–90 days and 6–12 months)


• Support bank-facing discussions with clear explanations of architecture, controls, and risk posture


• Provide architectural guidance for early engineering hires and vendors as needed

Qualifications & Experience

• 10–25 years of experience in systems, enterprise, or principal architecture roles


• Background in financial services, banking, capital markets, payments, or clearing/settlement systems


• Strong understanding of ledgers, reconciliation, transaction lifecycles, and operational controls


• Experience designing systems in regulated environments (auditability, vendor governance, security)


• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to executives and non-technical stakeholders


• Experience with digital assets, tokenization, or distributed ledger systems is a plus, but not required

Engagement Structure

• Fractional / advisory to start


• Equity-aligned compensation structure


• Flexible engagement with clear ownership over architecture and roadmap

What Success Looks Like

• A clear, credible architecture that banks can trust


• A defined technical roadmap that supports partnerships and fundraising


• A system design that balances compliance, scalability, and long-term flexibility

How to Apply

Please include:

• A brief summary of relevant architecture experience


• Examples of complex financial or regulated systems you have worked on


• Your availability for a fractional/advisory engagement