Canada's central bank is in the market for a CBDC project manager to oversee plans for the creation of a mass-market, consumer-friendly digital currency.
Describing the project as of "major social significance", the Bank says the programme will take into consideration a wide variety of factors, including policy considerations, diverse stakeholder needs, difficult technical challenges and the development of a technical architecture to realise a CBDC pilot system.
The job ad, which is open for applications until 28 June, describes the attributes required for "a CBDC with cash-like properties in digital form":
- Private: While not aiming for cash-like anonymity, CBDC should be highly private yet meet the obligation to be compliant with anti-money laundering and other regulations.
- Universally accessible: Regardless of their circumstances, CBDC should be usable by all Canadians, even by those without a bank account or access to a cellular phone, in remote communities not well served by cellular networks, and/or those with sensory, motor and cognitive impairments.
- Resilient: CBDC should continue to work even during electrical power and network outages.
- Secure: CBDC must have the highest levels of security so Canadians can use it with confidence, as they do our banknotes.
Says the bank: "We will design an architecture into which these properties are coherently embedded, with a potentially multi-decade evolving lifespan, supporting a business model designed to achieve CBDC policy goals."
Reporting to the director, Fintech Research in IT Services, the three-year contract calls for the successful recruit to coordinate the activities across a growing team spanning economics, policy, IT and communications.
"You manage the overall scope, cost, schedule and contractual deliverables, which includes applying project management methodologies for planning, tracking, change control and risk management," states the job ad.
The project is seen very much as a contingency programme. In February, the Bank of Canada stated that it has no plans to issue its own digital currency, but says this could change if cash usage drops off significantly or private options such as the Facebook-backed Libra gain widespread adoption.