Location: Leeds or London
The Project Area
The CBDC Unit is responsible for analysing the opportunities and challenges presented by and developing the design for the digital pound. The Unit's activities include economic analysis, work on functional design, exploration of technology options, and engaging private-sector and international counterparts and running experiments such as the digital pound lab.
More information on the Bank's CBDC work can be found at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/the-digital-pound and the digital pound lab can be found at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/the-digital-pound/lab
In 2025 the focus of the project is on two key activities. The first is completing the digital pound blueprint, which is a document that will distil all the thinking from the design phase in one place. The second is an assessment which will result in the recommendation from the unit as to whether we should progress towards building the digital pound for consideration by senior stakeholders in the bank and the government.
Digital pound project shifts to finalising the blueprint and the assessment workstreams of the design phase. The blueprint aims to provide a comprehensive proposition for a digital pound, addressing technological, operational, ecosystem, commercial, regulatory and financial considerations. While the assessment will provide a rigorous view of the costs and benefits associated with the specific digital pound proposition outlined in the blueprint.
The Role
As an Engineer in the CBDC Unit, you will be applying your skills as Computer Engineer to develop and maintain the technology experiments we are conducting during this research phase of the programme.
You core focus will be on develop the various different technology experiment projects we are conducting.
There will be lots of opportunities to build proof of concepts and prototypes as part of targeted experiments. Your work may involve starting new projects, maintaining, extending or improving existing experiments or looking at how to integrate different projects together.
You will work closely with solution architects, project managers and external partners to conduct experiments and will be an important voice in guiding where our experimentation leads next. The results of your work will inform the decision whether or not the UK should launch a CBDC.
The role will also involve collaborating with colleagues on the regulatory, policy and economic impacts of different technology choices.
You may perform a mentoring role for more training more junior technology colleagues.
Given this role will be working with a wide range of technologies across a number of potential collaborators and experiments, we are looking for people with an open and adaptable mindset able to learn new technologies to address specific challenging problems.
Minimum Criteria
- Interested - in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and the future of money - first and foremost you should be motivated to work on this project with us
- Adaptable - you should be open to learning new things and going beyond what you already know
- Problem solver - enjoy engaging with complex problems and finding solutions to them
- Implementer - You should enjoy make things work for real not just in theory
- Communicator - able to engage other people and able to explain yourself clearly to both technical and non-technical colleagues and write your ideas down when needed
- Technical - you should be experienced at working with computers in a technical way and comfortable interacting with code to some degree
Desirable Criteria
It is not required to have all the skills in this list and the Bank will prioritise the ability to adapt and learn new things, however this list should be treated as an guide of what you will experience within in the team.
Financial
- Banking, Payments or Fintech experience
- Prior experience of Financial messaging formats and APIs such as ISO 20022, OpenBanking etc.
Academic
- Degree level qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related subject.
Front End
- Frontend web technologies of HTML, CSS and Javascript
- Experience of modern frontend web app development technologies including node.js, and React
- Experience developing or integrating with REST APIs
- Experience of other modern Javascript frameworks such as Angular or Svelte etc.
DevOps
- Experience of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with technologies such as Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, Chef etc.
- Experience of Continuous Integration / Continuous Development (CI/CD) pipelines with technologies such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Travis CI etc.
- Experience of working with Digital Certificates and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) such as OpenSSL, DogTag, CFSSL, Hashicorp Vault etc.
- Experience of Network concepts such as TCP/IP, NAT, VLANs, subnets, CIDR ranges, DNS, DHCP, SOCKS Proxies, etc.
- Experience with logging, monitoring and tracing tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, Splunk, Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, Jaeger etc.
- Experience working with cloud infrastructure such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform etc.
Programming
- Proficiency in a mainstream programming language such as Java, Python, C, C++, C#, Go, Rust etc.
- Appreciation of Computer Science concepts including Data Structure and Algorithms
- Experience with Test Driven Development (TDD)
- Experience working with a modern distributed version control system such as Git, Mercurial or darcs
Testing
- Experience of different kinds of testing, functional, non-functional, unit and so on.
- Experience with testing frameworks, such as JUnit, Pytest, Cucumber etc.
General Development
- Experience of mentoring team members and colleagues with less technical experience
- Experience working with Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban and using tools like Jira and Confluence
- Experience with secure coding standards such as NIST, OWASP, SANS)
- Appreciation of coding best practices and code quality
Database
- Experience of relational database development with technologies such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle etc.
- Experience of non-relational (NOSQL) database development with technologies such as Redis, MongoDB, Cassandra, CouchDB etc.
For this technical role the application process will involve:
- a coding challenge to complete in your own time
- a technical interview focused on assessing your programming skills
- a general interview focused on your skills and experience required for the role and questions relating to our Bank Behaviours
For more information on our Bank Behaviours see https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/careers/why-you-should-join-us#our-bank-behaviours
Details of the coding challenge will be sent once you have submitted your initial application.
Important please apply online, ensuring that you complete your work history and answer ALL the application questions fully and in detail. Your application will not be considered if all mandatory questions are not fully completed. Please answer using your own thoughts and writing.
Our Approach to Inclusion
The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion. We play a key role in maintaining monetary and financial stability, and to do that effectively, we believe we need a workforce that reflects the society we serve.
At the Bank of England, we want all colleagues to feel valued and respected, so we're working hard to build an inclusive culture which supports people from all backgrounds and communities to be at their best at work. We celebrate all forms of diversity, including (but not limited to) age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We believe that it's by drawing on different perspectives and experiences that we'll continue to make the best decisions for the public.
We welcome applications from individuals who work flexibly, including job shares and part time working patterns. We've also partnered with external organisations to support us in making adjustments for candidates and employees in the recruitment process where they're needed.
For most roles where work can be carried out at home, we aim for colleagues to spend half of their time in the office, with a minimum of 40% per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them, their team and stakeholders.
Finally, we're proud to be a member of the Disability Confident Scheme. If you wish to apply under this scheme, you should check the box in the 'Candidate Personal Information' under the 'Disability Confident Scheme' section of the application.
Salary and Benefits Information
We encourage flexible working, part time working and job share arrangements. Part time salary and benefits will be on a pro-rated basis as appropriate.
London salary
£80,320-£90,360
Leeds
£72,320-£81,360 In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package as detailed below:
- Currently a non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/80th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/65th) or decrease (to 1/105th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year. The Bank has the discretion to vary standard accrual rates and dial up and dial down rates at any time and to withdraw dial up and dial down options at any time.
- A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
- An 8% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits.
- 26 days' annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
- Private medical insurance and income protection.
National Security Vetting Process
Employment in this role will be subject to the National Security Vetting clearance process (and typically can take between 6 to 12 weeks post offer) and the passing of additional Bank security checks in accordance with the Bank policy. Further information regarding the vetting and security clearance requirements for the role will be provided to the successful applicant, and information about how the Bank processes personal data for these purposes, is set out in the Bank's Privacy Notice.
The Bank of England welcomes applications from all candidates, but as a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approved sponsor, we have a responsibility to comply with the Immigration Rules and guidance. As such, our ability to employ individuals who require sponsorship for immigration purposes is limited. The Bank cannot guarantee that you and / or the role you are applying for will be eligible for sponsorship and that any application made to UKVI will be successful. Eligibility will therefore be considered on a case by case basis.
The Application Process
The assessment process will comprise of two interview stages.
Important: Please ensure that you complete the 'work history' section and answer ALL the application questions fully.
All candidate applications are anonymised to ensure that our hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information, including your CV, when reviewing your application details at the screening stage. It's therefore really important that you fill out the work history and application form questions, as your answers will form a critical part of the initial selection process.
This role closes on
07 August 2025
Please apply online, ensuring that you complete your work history and answer ALL the application questions fully and in detail as your application will not be considered if all mandatory questions are not fully completed.
