SVP, Institutional Finance – Digital Assets

About the role

The SVP, Institutional Finance – Digital Assets is responsible for leading and growing Western Alliance Bank's institutional digital asset banking franchise.

Responsibilities

• Originate, manage, and expand institutional banking relationships within the digital asset, fintech, and emerging payments sectors.
• Serve as senior relationship lead for key clients, acting as the primary point of contact across deposits, payments, settlement, and lending products.
• Develop and execute client acquisition strategies to accelerate growth of institutional deposits and transaction volumes.
• Build and maintain executive-level relationships with exchanges, custodians, market makers, OTC trading firms, stablecoin companies, fintech platforms, institutional investors, and ecosystem partners.
• Represent Western Alliance Bank at industry conferences, client events, and strategic partner meetings.
• Drive adoption and utilization of the Bank's 24/7 instant settlement network across existing and prospective clients.
• Identify and execute opportunities to expand network participation, transaction volume, and ecosystem connectivity.
• Partner with Product Management to gather client feedback and shape future network capabilities, APIs, and participant features.
• Develop strategic partnerships that strengthen network effects and enhance the value proposition for members.
• Collaborate with Treasury and Operations teams to support scalable growth of real-time payment and settlement activity.
• Lead business development efforts for bitcoin-backed and other approved digital asset-secured lending products.
• Partner with Credit, Portfolio Management, and Risk teams to structure lending facilities that meet client needs while adhering to established risk parameters.
• Identify lending opportunities among existing deposit and settlement clients to deepen relationships and increase wallet share.
• Assist in underwriting discussions, client due diligence, transaction structuring, and credit approval processes.
• Monitor portfolio trends and market developments impacting digital asset lending opportunities.
• Collaborate with Product Management to identify new banking, payments, lending, custody, and wallet opportunities within the digital asset ecosystem.
• Provide market intelligence regarding competitor offerings, client demand, and emerging industry trends.
• Support commercialization efforts for institutional and retail digital asset wallet products, tokenization initiatives, and future on-chain banking capabilities.
• Contribute to product roadmap development and go-to-market strategies.
• Ensure all client relationships align with approved risk appetite, onboarding standards, and compliance requirements.
• Partner closely with FCC, Legal, Risk, and Compliance teams throughout client onboarding and relationship management.
• Support regulatory examinations, audits, and internal reviews relating to digital asset business activities.

Requirements

• 8+ years of related experience.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required.
• Advanced knowledge of general banking operations, including deposit operations, loan administration, treasury management and/or other commercial banking products and services.
• Advanced knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards and practices.
• Advanced organizational and time management skills.
• Advanced speaking and writing communication skills.
• May require up to 50% travel.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience serving digital asset exchanges, custodians, market makers, fintechs, or stablecoin issuers.
• Familiarity with real-time payments, RTP, FedNow, APIs, and 24/7 settlement infrastructure.
• Experience with digital asset-secured lending products.
• Existing network of institutional digital asset industry relationships.

Benefits

You’ll love benefits like competitive salaries, an ownership stake in the company, medical and dental insurance, time off, a great 401k matching program, tuition assistance program, an employee volunteer program, and a wellness program.