Protocol Engineer

Conduit – The Onchain Compute Company

At Conduit, we're building the rollup-native cloud platform that will scale Ethereum.

Crypto builders have been held back by a lack of onchain compute — without the ability to process a high volume of transactions quickly and cheaply, onchain apps and ecosystems can’t build high quality user experiences.

Rollups have emerged as the answer to this problem. Just as servers work together to scale compute in web2, so too can rollups scale onchain compute in web3. But building and operating your own rollup is difficult and time-consuming. That's where Conduit comes in.

As the rollup-native cloud platform, Conduit combines web2 engineering best-practices with web3 rollup technology to make it easy for anyone to launch and maintain their own chain. By making infrastructure simple and onchain compute abundant, similar to how AWS and GCP did for web2, we can unlock the next wave of innovation in the crypto ecosystem.

The Conduit platform has seen massive growth since going live in 2023. We run the largest chains in production, including Proof of Play, Zora, Aevo, and more. This translates to 200+ chains across mainnet and testnet and over $1B in total-value-locked (TVL). We're operating on the bleeding edge of crypto, co-evolving with our customers and integration partners, and pushing the limits of blockchain scalability and modularity.

This success has been recognized and accelerated through a $37M Series A, co-led by Paradigm and Haun Ventures — two of the best investors in the industry.

We’re an elite team that’s previously worked at Meta, Brex, Wish, Compound, Chainalysis, Immunefi, Amazon, Avara/Aave, Paradigm, and more. We’re headquartered in San Francisco, with team members all over the world.

We’re looking for ambitious, talented builders that want to help scale Ethereum and bring crypto compute to the masses. Join us!

About the Role

As a Senior Protocol Engineer at Conduit.xyz, you will be a key contributor to our backend team, focusing on the design, development, and deployment of protocol-level enhancements. You will be instrumental in driving initiatives that improve finality, security, and interoperability across multiple blockchain networks. This role demands a deep understanding of both off-chain infrastructure and on-chain protocols, particularly in the rollups space. You will be a thought leader, bringing innovative ideas and solutions to complex problems, and working independently to ship high-quality, impactful features.

Responsibilities:

• Protocol Design and Development:

  • Lead the design and implementation of protocol enhancements, focusing on areas such as sequencer hardening, fee disbursement, and state validation.

  • Work closely with the backend team to integrate on-chain and off-chain functionalities.

• Cross-Chain Interoperability:

  • Develop solutions that enable seamless interoperability between multiple blockchain networks.

  • Design and implement cross-chain messaging systems, understanding the underlying primitives and risks.

• Security and Optimization:

  • Conduct security screenings of smart contracts and identify potential vulnerabilities.

  • Optimize protocol performance and efficiency, focusing on improving finality and reducing latency.

• Research and Innovation:

  • Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in blockchain protocols and rollups.

  • Identify and propose new opportunities to differentiate Conduit.xyz through protocol-level innovation.

  • Work to solve the pain points that affect the rollups ecosystem.

• Collaboration and Communication:

  • Collaborate with the rollups product team to define requirements and deliver solutions.

  • Communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

  • Work independently.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Strong proficiency in GoLang and/or Rust

• Extensive experience in backend software engineering, with a strong focus on blockchain protocols and rollups.

• Proven track record of shipping protocol-related projects, ideally involving cross-chain functionality.

• Solid understanding of Solidity and smart contract development.

• Deep understanding of on-chain and off-chain infrastructure.

• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to translate high-level concepts into practical solutions.

• Experience working with multiple Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain networks.

• Crypto Native with a deep understanding of the space.

• Mechanism design understanding.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Experience with validator-type protocols and staking mechanisms.

• Knowledge of DeFi protocols, governance, and synthetic assets.

• Understanding of bridge and fast bridge technologies.

Our tech stack

Our infrastructure is built on Kubernetes, Postgres, and Cloud Tasks on GCP, and the products on top utilize a mix of React, Javascript/Typescript, Go, Rust, and Postgres. While we value experience with these technologies, we are primarily looking for engineers with strong technical skills and the ability to quickly pick up new tools and frameworks.

We utilize the Arbitrum Orbit and Optimism rollup frameworks in production today.