Principal Security Architect

Copper has been building the standard for institutional digital asset infrastructure since 2018, focusing on custody, collateral management, and prime services. Led by CEO Amar Kuchinad, Copper provides a comprehensive suite of custody, trading, and settlement solutions that reduce counterparty risk and bring greater capital and operational efficiency to digital asset markets. At the heart of Copper’s offering is Multi‑Party Computation (MPC) technology – the gold standard in secure custody. Copper’s multi‑award winning custody system can be connected to centralised exchanges, DeFi applications, and even staking pools without the assets leaving the custody. Built on top of this state‑of‑the‑art custody, ClearLoop is the first solution that overcomes counterparty risk with exchanges, enabling customers to trade and settle directly from the safety of their MPC‑secured wallets. Copper has one of the strongest insurance coverages in the industry and the most robust security certifications.

Department/Team Purpose

Copper provides institutional digital asset custody, settlement, and collateral management services across a wide range of blockchains and integrated venues. Information Security protects the firm’s platforms, client assets, and regulated entities across the group.

Role Purpose

The Principal Security Architect is the senior technical authority for security architecture at Copper. The role reports to the CISO and partners closely with Engineering. The holder sets architectural direction, reviews and approves designs for major change, and acts as the firm’s reference point on the security of the systems, protocols, and integrations Copper depends on. The role is predominantly architecture and assurance, with limited hands‑on solution design in the cloud and integration space where reference patterns are needed.

Key Responsibilities

• Hold formal security sign‑off authority for major changes to Copper’s platforms, infrastructure, and integrations.
• Shape and maintain the security architecture patterns, principles, and reference designs that engineering teams build against.
• Provide the senior technical security position in architectural and business decisions, including escalations where security and delivery pressures conflict.
• Provide architectural security leadership over Copper’s signing infrastructure, working alongside specialist engineering and cryptography teams.
• Review and approve changes to transaction construction, signing flows, approval policy, and key lifecycle operations.
• Provide architectural assurance over chain‑of‑trust constructs adjacent to custody, including verifiable build pipelines, hardware‑backed code signing, and authenticator‑bound administrative paths.
• Reason at architectural depth across the range of blockchains Copper supports, including EVM, UTXO, and account‑based non‑EVM families.
• Assess third‑party smart contract architectures, implementations, and audit reports to a level sufficient to understand the exploit and risk surface.
• Review first‑party integrations with partner networks, including those underpinning staking and similar on‑chain participation.
• Provide architectural ownership of the security model for Copper’s settlement, collateral mirroring, and off‑exchange product surfaces.
• Own identity and access architecture as a dedicated pillar of the role.
• Maintain working architectural fluency in both AWS and Azure, including network topology, segmentation, secrets handling, and platform telemetry.
• Lead technical security review of vendors, integrated venues, and protocols.
• Maintain a working understanding of the regulatory regimes applicable to Copper’s licensed entities.
• Contribute to security policy, standards, and control framework development as the senior technical reviewer.

Skills and Experience

• Multi‑chain architectural literacy.
• Strong conceptual grasp of threshold signing, signature schemes, and key lifecycle.
• Demonstrable experience reasoning about settlement, collateral, and off‑exchange constructs.
• Senior‑level experience designing and governing identity across various authentication methods.
• Working architectural understanding of AWS and Azure.
• Track record of holding sign‑off on significant designs.
• Comfortable reviewing the work of engineering peers, infrastructure changes, and vendor designs.
• Able to operate credibly with engineers, senior business stakeholders, auditors, and regulators.
• Familiarity with chain‑of‑trust constructs.
• Awareness of the regulatory landscape relevant to digital asset custody and trading.
• Compliance familiarity across ISO 27001, SOC 2, and NIST CSF/800‑53.
• Enterprise architecture grounding where it complements rather than replaces technical depth.

Why Copper?

At Copper, we keep innovation, openness, and curiosity at the centre of everything we do. Bold ideas get the spotlight, learning is constant, and diversity shapes our team from the ground up. We love a challenge and know how to have fun along the way. Collaboration is just as important as results – you’ll be surrounded by smart, driven colleagues in London and across our APAC, Switzerland, UAE, and US offices. We believe in the value of hybrid working; we also embrace the adaptability of flexibly working. Diversity and inclusion matter to us – they’re woven into Copper life.

Benefits

• Paid Time Off – A minimum of 35 days of paid time off per year, inclusive of annual leave and public holidays.
• Comprehensive Medical Insurance – Inclusive of dental, optical, audiology, and mental health coverage.
• Life Insurance.
• Enhanced Pension Contributions – Includes an enhanced employer matching contribution.
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

Copper is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and equal opportunities in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. Copper is a Disability Confident Employer; please let us know if you have a disability. If you require us to provide any assistance during the recruitment process, we will be happy to accommodate.