Lead Software Engineer, Infrastructure

Who We Are

The Solana Foundation is a non-profit based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the adoption, decentralization, and security of the Solana network. Solana is a high performance blockchain that can deliver a fast and friendly user experience, without sacrificing security. The Solana Foundation is working to realize a world where individuals own their data, use permissionless networks, and transfer information and value freely around the world. We are looking for talented people who are willing to jump right in and use their expertise to help the ecosystem build.

What We Do

The Ecosystem Engineering team is a horizontal team of strategically deployed engineers that live at the intersection of business, technology, and innovation in the Solana ecosystem. We support teams small and large by providing technical guidance, architecture review, and maximize our leverage by driving adoption of technical public goods through code and coordination.

We’re looking for a technical lead to drive adoption of standards, specifications, and conventions throughout the entire Solana network from nodes all the way to wallets! This role will also assist infrastructure-related ecosystem teams in achieving their business goals within the Solana ecosystem.

To be successful in this role

You will be:

• Driving feature development: you’ll be the subject-matter expert for many infrastructure-related products:

  • Cross-chain messaging (e.g., bridges, oracles)

  • Offchain compute (e.g., verifiable compute, zero-knowledge primitives, attestations)

  • The proliferation of SVM (localnet, ephemeral testnets, Solana Permissioned Environments)

• Supporting ecosystem teams and prospective builders: you will be the technical point-of-contact for connectivity and verifiable compute teams in the Solana ecosystem

• Interfacing with developers: you will be collaborating directly with developers building on Solana to provide architecture review, collect their feedback, and inform protocol development.

You ideally have:

• 5+ years working in infrastructure- or platform-focused teams building out distributed systems at scale. 

• Experience using Rust, C++, or other performant languages

• Established experience with infrastructure tooling like Docker, K8s, IaC and cloud infrastructure

• Experience writing complex SQL and building data pipelines and models, preferably in DBT

• Extensive experience designing and operating APIs

• A deep interest in the impact of blockchain technologies

Bonus points:

• Experience working with the Solana protocol

• Have operated (or currently operate) a validator / miner for any blockchain

• Experience building on the SVM (Solana Virtual Machine)

• Have experience contributing to open-source projects

• Previously led or coordinated teams of engineers