Distributed Systems Engineer

Jobicy; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive salary

Job summary

Axiom in New York City is building zero-knowledge based scalable blockchain infrastructure. We seek a distributed systems engineer to design and implement Rust-based rollup nodes and sequencers for on-chain zk proofs.

You will work on secure, high-uptime systems in a small, fast-paced team, contributing across the stack from backend services to deployment pipelines, with strong emphasis on security and pragmatic engineering decisions.

Qualifications

• Fluent in Rust or C++ with strong backend experience in production systems.
• Experience deploying high-uptime applications in cloud environments using orchestration and containers.
• Experience working with large production codebases and a security‑minded approach.

Responsibilities

• Build Rust-based rollup nodes and sequencers to deliver on-chain zk‑proof products.
• Design secure, scalable systems and make pragmatic engineering choices for a small team.
• Contribute across the stack, from backend services to deployment pipelines, with a focus on security.

Skills

Rust

C++

Security mindset

Communication

Bias for action

Team collaboration

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Job description

About Us

Axiom is using zero-knowledge proofs to enable new types of verifiable and private software applications, starting with crypto and fintech. We are a small but incredibly strong team backed by the best investors in crypto. We’re looking for exceptional people who are excited to work on challenging and impactful problems in a fast-paced environment. Our office is in NYC and working in person in NY is our strong preference, but we’re open to remote candidates as well.

We recently released OpenVM, a performant and modular zkVM framework built for customization and extensibility. OpenVM allows developers to verify the correct execution of arbitrary computer programs in a flexible and performant way. We are building ZK-enabled products using OpenVM and supporting teams building on OpenVM.

The Role

We are looking for a distributed systems engineer to join a startup using zero-knowledge proofs to scale smart contract applications. You will be responsible for building Rust-based rollup nodes and sequencers to deliver zero-knowledge proof based products on-chain. Your work will require designing secure and efficient systems and making design choices to enable rapid development without sacrificing security.

We are looking for someone with strong engineering design skills, a security mindset, and the ability to design and implement blockchain protocols. We also value the ability to make pragmatic technology choices which empower our small team.

Who you are

• You are fluent in Rust, C++, or a similarly performant backend language. We work primarily in Rust.


• You have experience deploying and monitoring high uptime applications to production in the cloud using orchestration and containerization (Docker, Terraform, Kubernetes).


• You have experience working within a large production codebase.


• You are extremely detail oriented and have a security mindset.


• You’re a clear communicator and value collaboration.


• You have a bias towards action and extremely strong work ethic.

Bonuses

• You have experience working with blockchain nodes like Geth, Reth, or similar.


• You have experience with low-level details of Ethereum.


• You have experience working in an adversarial or security critical environment.

Why work with us

• You’ll be working on groundbreaking tech that has the potential to be a key piece of infrastructure for the crypto industry


• You’ll receive a competitive salary with equity


• You will work with and receive mentorship from an exceptional team

Our Team

Our founders Yi Sun and Jonathan Wang met while studying math at Harvard and have been working on ZK since 2021. Together, they wrote some of the most performant ZK circuits for elliptic curve cryptography and Ethereum data reads before starting Axiom.

Before Axiom, Yi was a professor at UChicago Statistics and did a math PhD at MIT. He was previously an advisor for Gauntlet and worked at an HFT startup from inception to profitable trading. Jonathan published number theory research in top math journals and did a math PhD at UChicago.

The rest of our small but incredibly strong team includes alums of Applied Intuition, Coinbase, Color, Neon, Google, and Perplexity as well as math / CS PhDs and IMO / IPhO / Codeforces winners. We look forward to working with you!