Engineering Manager

Subzero Labs; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + token allocation

Health, dental, and vision benefits

Flexible PTO and company recharge days

Home office and equipment stipend

Travel support for offsites

Job summary

A pioneering Web3 company is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead and develop high-performance engineering teams. The role emphasizes people leadership, team processes, and technical alignment. Ideal candidates should have over 6 years in software engineering and a minimum of 2 years in management roles, preferably within Web3 environments. Benefits include competitive salary, equity opportunities, and a flexible remote-first culture.

Qualifications

• 6–10+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years in engineering management or tech lead role.
• Experience leading Web3 engineering teams in protocols or DeFi.
• Strong leadership skills in coaching and growing engineers.

Responsibilities

• Manage and grow engineering teams working on protocol or infrastructure.
• Drive hiring, onboarding, and career development for engineers.
• Ensure teams operate with high ownership and collaborative velocity.

Skills

Software engineering experience

People leadership skills

Web3 engineering expertise

Effective communication

Operational excellence

Empathy for builders

Tools

Rust

Golang

Solidity

zk tooling

Cosmos SDK

Job description

About Subzero Labs

Subzero Labs is building Rialo - a programmable network that brings the real-world internet onchain, without the clunky UX of today’s blockchain apps.

Our mission is to make decentralized applications feel fast, familiar, and reliable - for developers, fintechs, and everyday users.

We’re backed by Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Variant, and more. Our team includes builders from Mysten Labs, Diem, Apple, Netflix, and Google.

About the Role

We’re hiring an Engineering Manager to lead, support, and grow high-performing engineering teams building core infrastructure at Subzero Labs.

You’ll focus primarily on people leadership - including coaching engineers, building team processes, driving hiring, and ensuring we maintain high technical velocity and culture. You’ll work closely with engineering leadership, product managers, and protocol stakeholders to ensure teams are aligned, supported, and consistently delivering.

This is a great opportunity for a Web3-native engineering leader who wants to work closely with experienced protocol engineers, builders, and founders - and help scale teams building secure, performant, and developer-friendly infrastructure.

What You’ll Do

• Manage and grow engineering teams working on protocol, infra, security, or developer-facing systems
• Drive hiring, onboarding, and career development for engineers at all levels
• Create an environment of high ownership, psychological safety, and collaborative velocity
• Partner with engineering leadership to implement structured processes around code reviews, RFCs, testing, and release management
• Support engineers through regular 1:1s, performance feedback, goal setting, and mentorship
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, BD, DevRel, and community teams to align roadmap delivery
• Help manage team rituals - including sprint planning, retrospectives, technical reviews, and team offsites
• Drive internal communication and alignment across globally distributed teams

What We’re Looking For

• 6–10+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years in an engineering management or tech lead role
• Experience leading Web3 engineering teams - in protocol development, validator infrastructure, DeFi, smart contracts, or cryptography
• Strong people leadership skills - coaching, hiring, growing high-agency engineers
• Operational excellence - you know how to build and maintain scalable, async-friendly team systems
• Familiarity with modern Web3 engineering stacks - e.g. Rust, Golang, Solidity, zk tooling, Cosmos SDK, or similar
• Effective communicator - clear across code, documentation, written specs, and verbal updates
• Strong judgment - you know when to unblock, when to upscale, and when to let people own their work
• Empathy for both high-context builders and low-context contributors - able to bridge gaps and create shared understanding

Bonus Points

• Experience working in early-stage Web3 startups or L1/L2 ecosystems
• Familiarity with consensus, cryptography, MEV, rollups, or TEE-backed execution
• Contributions to open-source projects or protocol working groups
• Passion for developer experience, documentation, and onboarding
• Prior experience managing fully remote and globally distributed teams

Why Join Us

• Lead engineering teams building the foundation of a high-performance, real-world crypto network
• Work alongside founders and engineers from Diem, Mysten Labs, Google, and Netflix
• Help shape how teams operate, ship, and scale
• Early-stage equity + token upside
• Remote-first culture with high-trust, high-context collaboration

Benefits

• Competitive salary + token allocation
• Health, dental, and vision (for U.S. employees)
• Flexible PTO + company recharge days
• Home office + equipment stipend
• Travel support for offsites, conferences, and team events

Subzero Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.