Senior Backend Engineer — Systems & Infrastructure

New York City (4 days/week in-office)

$220,000 – $275,000 base + equity

About the Company

A profitable, venture-backed startup building differentiated products and core infrastructure in decentralized finance. The company operates one of the leading on-chain exchanges in its category — processing tens of billions in trading volume since launching in 2023 — and is one of the most active on-chain market makers in crypto. The team is small, technically elite, and has remained low-profile while achieving top-10 market positioning. Engineering talent comes from Stripe, Jane Street, Akuna Capital, and Solana Labs.

The company is expanding its product surface significantly, including into perpetual futures and a new Layer 2 blockchain. This is a ground-floor opportunity to join a profitable, well-capitalized team at an inflection point.

About the Role

We're looking for a strong generalist backend engineer — senior to staff level — to join the core engineering team. This is a systems and infrastructure role, not a quant or trading role. The primary bar is exceptional CS fundamentals and system design ability. You'll own complex initiatives end-to-end, architect systems from the ground up, and work closely with engineering leadership in a fast-moving, high-ownership environment.

What You'll Do

• Build and maintain core backend infrastructure across the platform
• Design and implement high-performance, reliable systems under real production constraints
• Own initiatives from design through launch and ongoing reliability
• Collaborate directly with engineering and leadership on architecture decisions
• Adapt quickly to evolving requirements in a lean, fast-shipping team

What We're Looking For

• 7+ years of experience building and maintaining production-grade software systems
• Exceptional CS fundamentals and system design skills — this is the primary evaluation criterion
• Demonstrated ability to lead projects, architect systems end-to-end, and operate independently on complex work
• Consistent job tenure — stable career history with meaningful time at each company
• Proficiency in one or more of: Rust, C++, C, Go, Python, TypeScript

Strong pluses:

• Low-level programming experience (systems, compilers, databases, networking) — this is a significant differentiator
• Experience with blockchain technology
• Interest in DeFi and trading systems (intellectual curiosity valued; passion not required)
• TradFi or crypto background

What We're Not Looking For

• Candidates whose experience is limited to general web backend without systems or infrastructure depth
• Jumpy backgrounds or flat career trajectories
• Resumes that lead with a keyword list rather than specific ownership and impact



Compensation & Logistics

• $220,000 – $275,000 base salary + equity
• New York City, 4 days/week in-office
• Series A company, profitable, $44M raised