A fintech research institute established by China's central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), has posted several new job openings for blockchain talent. The three listings were published to Chinese recruitment website Lagou.com on May 21.

As its profile on Lagou.com outlines, the Shenzhen Fintech Research Institute is a unit jointly organized by the PBoC’s Digital Currency Research Institute, the Shenzhen Local Financial Supervision Bureau and the Futian District People's Government. It is tasked with spearheading fintech and digital currency-related development projects under the aegis of the central bank and the Shenzhen municipal government.

The new listings for blockchain talent have been posted as part of a broader recruitment effort, with openings for a total of 29 positions. The institute is specifically seeking to fill three new roles — a blockchain development engineer, a blockchain architect and a senior technical expert.

The technical expertise required for the last of these roles includes an in-depth knowledge of blockchain technology, smart contracts, consensus algorithms, P2P protocols and distributed systems and storage. Applicants are expected to have three to five years of experience and an undergraduate qualification as a minimum.

A similar level of experience is required for the institute’s prospective blockchain architect, who is required to have an in-depth understanding of blockchain and distributed system architecture design, as well as experience in designing large-scale institutional information system architectures.

For the blockchain engineering role, a skill set spanning multiple development languages — including Java, Python and Solidity — coding proficiency and familiarity with big data, cloud computing and distributed systems is sought. A lesser experience level of one to three years is desirable.

Among the Shenzhen Fintech Research’s other newly-listed roles, the institute is also seeking a director of trade finance products — an area which the PBoC has been innovating with blockchain through a series of pilots over the past year.

Last fall, the PBoC opened four positions for crypto-related professionals at its Digital Currency Institute, seeking engineers that would develop a secure big data platform and chip processor for crypto transactions.

Also last fall, a PBoC expert advocated for the launch of a government-endorsed yuan-backed stablecoin, notwithstanding the country’s heavy restrictions on decentralized cryptocurrencies.