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Senior Protocol Engineer, Rust


Who are we?


We believe Ethereum has the potential to solve some of humanity’s most crucial coordination issues. Since our initial inception as a research group, we have sought to scale both its technology and values.At present, the most pressing bottleneck to the growth of Ethereum is its performance and scalability. We are building the most elegant solution to this problem. We do this in the open (under an MIT open source license) because we believe in open source innovation and its ability to accelerate growth.OP Labs contributes to the Optimism protocol, an extension to Ethereum that scales both its technology and values.

Optimism enables orders of magnitude of improved performance and scalability to Ethereum while doubling down on its commitment to public goods.The Optimism Collective leads the blockchain protocol landscape, dedicated to fostering a scalable and sustainable ecosystem. Optimism’s ethos, in sync with Ethereum's vision, tackles pivotal coordination challenges of the digital age. Optimism’s goal is to harmonize private incentives with public good, shaping a resilient future for the Internet. Optimism’s scope spans diverse areas like Gaming, DeFi, NFTs, and Enterprise.OP Labs is looking for an experienced software engineer with Rust expertise.

We’re developing the infrastructure to enable the secure and permissionless withdrawal of funds from OP Stack chains and the Superchain.We’re contributing to the Rust Ethereum ecosystem, enabling OP Stack chains to use Reth, and building a rust-based fault proof program to complement the existing Go-based implementation.We also maintain important Go-based infrastructure, and while we do have Go specialists our values are to put the Optimism mission first and help anywhere that’s needed.

What are the role responsibilities?


  • Contribute to important Rust-based Ethereum and OP Stack infrastructure including OP Reth, Kona, and related open-source tools and libraries.
  • Evolve our proof system to meet stage 2 requirements using dispute games and/or validity proofs.
  • Assist in occasional maintenance of existing Go-based infrastructure as needed.
  • Work with other teams and other disciplines within OP Labs, and with our ecosystem of external developers and partners.

What skills do you bring? 


  • A deep understanding of the Rust language and ecosystem.
  • Blockchain development experience.
  • Experience in systems programming, particularly in developing low-level software such as virtual machines, interpreters, or compilers.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to document technical details clearly and collaborate effectively with team members.
  • Strong understanding of cryptographic principles.
  • Experience with Zero Knowledge Proofs is a nice-to-have.

Compensation Range: $190K - $225K

Life at Optimism Foundation

Everybody and their mother working on blockchains loves the word “decentralization”. On a broad, world-changing scale, we can all agree that it’s important. Yet, when we zoom into the specifics of how to build this decentralized world, we find many diverse approaches. Whether it’s defi, identity, art, healthcare, or anything in between, a single dependency unites each dream for the future: scalability. We are building the critical infrastructure to address this need. Optimistic Ethereum is an extension to Ethereum that scales both its technology and philosophy. Not only do we enable orders of magnitude more performance, we’re also doubling down on Ethereum’s values as a public good, never to be captured by private commercial interests. Ethereum will enable the greatest change in human coordination since the birth of the internet, and Optimism is here to bring it to the masses.
Thrive Here & What We Value1. Transparent and feedbackdriven culture2. Funcentric work environment3. Diverse and inclusive team4. Supportive and collaborative atmosphere5. Emphasis on employee wellbeeing (fully paid medical, dental, vision benefits)6. 4% 401K match7. Commitment to building an inclusive and supportive work environment

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