Director – Strategy & Development

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Director, Strategy & Development – Digital Assets will define and advance Early Warning’s digital asset ecosystem strategy, including participation models, governance concepts, and commercialization design for a scalable stablecoin-enabled network.

This role is responsible for shaping the strategic direction for a new digital asset business opportunity within a regulated financial services environment. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience building or scaling new businesses inside a corporation, innovation lab, major financial institution, fintech, or regulated digital asset platform. This is not a traditional consulting strategy role; it requires practical experience translating strategy into operating models, ecosystem design, partnership requirements, and market-entry execution.

Essential Functions

• Digital Assets Growth Strategy - Develop compelling digital assets strategy recommendations that enhance our competitive advantages by understanding market trends, competitive dynamics, and internal business capabilities..

• Define and evolve the digital asset ecosystem model, including participation frameworks, economic design principles, and network governance concepts.

• Develop multi-year strategic roadmap for market entry, ecosystem expansion, and competitive positioning within digital assets.

• Translate regulatory, competitive, and market dynamics into ecosystem and partnership strategy; identify strategic implications and recommendations.

• Establish institutional participation models supporting stablecoin and tokenized deposit initiatives (eligibility, roles, onboarding path, and operating expectations).

• Provide strategic guidance to partnership and commercialization leaders to ensure cohesive network design and sequencing.

• Create executive-ready including strategy narratives, market assessments, ecosystem frameworks, decision memos, operating model recommendations, and board- or senior leadership-level presentations

• Strategic initiatives and business case: Develop recommendation for strategic initiatives and create qualitative and quantitative analyses that enable enterprise and business prioritization, budgeting, and monetization of new programs and initiatives

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, or related field.

• Typically 12+ years of experience in strategy, corporate strategy, ecosystem strategy, partnerships strategy, or adjacent roles in fintech/financial services.

• Demonstrated experience building strategy frameworks, market entry roadmaps, and operating/participation models for new products, platforms or business lines.

• Proven ability to move beyond strategy development into practical execution planning, including operating requirements, stakeholder alignment, sequencing, and commercialization considerations.

• Ability to work cross-functionally with product, engineering, legal, compliance, risk, finance, commercialization, and partnership teams.

• Strong executive communication skills; ability to influence across product, engineering, risk, and legal stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or advanced degree.

• Experience with or materially contribute to new business creation within an innovation lab, venture studio, or developed digit asset strategies within a major bank.

• Experience with stablecoins, tokenization, blockchain ecosystems, or regulated digital asset platforms.

• Experience supporting business model design, network effects, or platform participation frameworks in regulated environments.

• Experience from a top-tier strategy consulting firm may be considered when paired with significant hands-on operating, ecosystem, financial services innovation, or digital asset experience

• Fluency in performing financial, valuation, and broad quantitative analyses in Excel and familiarity with accounting and key operational metrics

• Experience in payments, risk insights, digital identity, banking, or fintech space. experience working in complex strategic projects with financial services companies, inclusive of corporate and business unit strategy, driving business and technical alignment, and communicating with both internal and external executives.

The base pay scale for this position in:

Phoenix, AZ / Chicago, IL / Remote in USD per year is: $154,000 - $232,000.

New York, NY/ San Francisco, CA in USD per year is: $209,000 - $278,000.

Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness 

• Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.

• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.

• Paid Time Off – Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.

• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave

• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.