DeFi Engineer

Flow Foundation; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Flow Foundation is seeking an experienced DeFi Engineer to drive the next wave of decentralized finance on Flow. You will design, implement, and audit smart contracts for innovative primitives, while partnering with top Web3 teams to port and co-create protocols on Flow.

You will own security, optimize capital efficiency, and mentor the ecosystem with reference implementations and deep-dive analyses. This role blends hands-on coding with strategic impact.

Qualifications

• Experience focused on Web3/DeFi development across multiple languages.
• Hands-on shipping and maintenance of at least one major DeFi protocol to mainnet.
• Strong understanding of smart-contract security patterns and exploits.
• Experience across the stack: Cadence contracts, deployments, on-chain analytics, and dApp front-ends.
• Curiosity for emergent primitives and cross-chain interoperability; ability to adapt to Flow's architecture.
• Excellent communication to translate technical ideas to diverse stakeholders.
• Bonus: familiarity with account-abstraction wallets and formal verification tools.

Responsibilities

• Build, audit, and ship DeFi primitives (AMMs, lending, bridges, LSTs, derivatives).
• Expand DeFi partnerships by guiding protocols on Flow from architecture to launch.
• Improve existing protocols to increase TVL and capital efficiency.
• Prototype future UX approaches like gasless transactions and multi-VM composability.
• Educate the community via reference implementations, blogs, and talks.
• Own end-to-end security including verification, audits, and incident response.

Tools

Cadence tooling

Move tooling

Solidity tooling

Rust tooling

Formal verification tools

Job description

About Flow Foundation

Flow is a layer one blockchain designed from the ground up as a platform for a new generation of Web3 apps, games, and the digital assets that power them. Flow is home today to millions of users and apps from top tier creators including Genies, Cryptoys, Doodles, and Dapper Labs (NBA, NFL, Disney) as well as industry leaders such as Mattel (Barbie, Hot Wheels), LiveNation / Ticketmaster, and many more. Our mission is to take Web3 mainstream by making blockchain technology simple, safe, and delightful for builders and consumers alike. We operate as a distributed, low-hierarchy organization where humble, inquisitive entrepreneurs thrive.

Why this role matters

Total value locked (TVL) on Flow is growing quickly, and DeFi is a critical catalyst. As a DeFi Engineer you will drive the next wave of decentralized-finance innovation on Flow—shipping novel protocols, strengthening existing integrations, and inspiring builders across the ecosystem. You’ll pair deep DeFi expertise with Flow-native super-powers such as protocol-level account abstraction, Cadence’s capability-based security model, and seamless EVM equivalence to unlock experiences impossible elsewhere.

What you’ll do

• Build & ship DeFi primitives – Design, implement, and audit smart contracts for AMMs, lending markets, liquid staking, cross-chain bridges, yield strategies, and novel financial instruments.

• Expand DeFi partnerships – Collaborate with leading Web3 teams to port or co-create protocols on Flow, guiding them through architecture, security, and launch.

• Level-up existing protocols – Profile on-chain activity, identify UX or economic friction points, and deploy improvements that increase capital efficiency and TVL.

• Prototype future-state concepts – Explore account abstraction–enabled UX (e.g., gasless transactions, passkeys) and multi-VM composability to invent the next generation of DeFi experiences.

• Advocate & educate – Publish reference implementations, write deep-dive blog posts, speak at conferences, and mentor community devs to demystify DeFi on Flow.

• Security first – Own end-to-end security: formal verification, fuzzing, audits, monitoring, and rapid incident response.

About you

• Software engineering experience focused on Web3/DeFi (Solidity, Move, Cadence, Rust, etc.).

• Hands-on experience shipping and maintaining at least one major DeFi protocol (AMM, lending, bridge, LST, derivatives, etc.) to mainnet.

• Strong grasp of smart-contract security patterns, economic/game-theoretic exploits, and incident triage.

• Comfort working across the stack: writing Cadence contracts, scripting deployments, instrumenting on-chain analytics, and contributing to dApp front-ends.

• Curiosity for emerging primitives (restaking, intent-based execution, L2 interoperability) and the creativity to adapt them to Flow’s architecture.

• Effective communicator who can translate complex technical ideas to diverse stakeholders.

• Bonus: experience with account-abstraction wallets, formal verification tools, or multi-VM execution environments.

What we’ll accomplish together

• Double the number of high-quality DeFi protocols live on Flow.

• 10× TVL growth through improved capital efficiency and seamless cross-chain liquidity.

• Set new UX/security standards for consumer-friendly DeFi using Flow’s unique capabilities.

• Foster a vibrant community of external DeFi builders and researchers.