Founding Engineer (NYC)

blockchaincapital.com; New York (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Slate is building a vertical AI agent stack that links to on-chain workflows, backed by Blockchain Capital. We seek a high‑agency, clear communicator to design and build complex, maintainable systems quickly.

The product is unique and challenging, requiring balancing user prompts with multiple information channels and performance in crypto contexts. You will own end‑to‑end technical solutions, influence UX, and drive architectural choices while improving the execution engine to support more

Qualifications

• Crypto native for 2+ years with experience in trading, investing, DeFi, or CT.
• Experience building on-chain tools or smart contracts is preferred.
• Familiarity with ML concepts and NLP in applications is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Scope and own technical solutions for user problems end-to-end
• Consider and implement UX solutions based on refined personal taste and direct user feedback
• Make and implement architectural decisions
• Develop and optimize Slate’s execution engine to integrate more protocols, solvers, and chains, better map user intents, increase reliability and increase speed
• Lead small teams to execute your solutions as necessary
• Review and test code developed by other team members

Skills

CS fundamentals

Smart contracts

Machine learning

On-chain coding

NLP experience

Education

Computer Science curriculum principles

Tools

Python

TypeScript

React

Job description

About Us

Slate is pioneering a vertical AI agent stack that plugs into users alpha sources, synthesizes information and autonomously executes complex on-chain transaction flows from language commands. We’re backed by Blockchain Capital (investor in Ethereum, Coinbase, Eigenlayer, Worldcoin, Aave, ZkSync, etc). We currently support:

• Swapping, bridging and perpetuals protocols across Base, Solana, Hyperliquid, Arbitrum and Mainnet – various DeFi protocols across EVM chains
• Functionality for multi-step actions (i.e., bridge from X to Y then swap into Z)
• A number of automation types (i.e., condition my swap on gas decreasing X%, copy trade wallet 0xy, etc)

About the role

Our eventual hire will be a high agency, clear communicator and lifelong learner who can design and build complex, yet maintainable, systems in half the time that most competent people think possible. Expect talented, motivated, intense, and interesting coworkers who are the same. The product has never been built before and is exceptionally difficult to build. We face unique challenges around approximating what the user considers alpha in and between their information channels, displaying the appropriate information to the user, understanding the infinite possible permutations of user prompts, scaling integrations while maximizing performance in financial contexts, building an agent UI/UX for crypto from first principles and more. If work like this energizes you, a position at Slate may fit you well.

Desired Background

Technical

• Computer Science curriculum principles
• Understanding of smart contracts
• Understanding of machine learning
• Previously built code interacting on chain (trading bot, arbitrage bot, liquidation bot, etc)
• (Nice to have) Previously built natural language processing code in any application

Experience

• Crypto native for 2+ years (e.g., personally trading, investing, DeFi, posting on CT, etc)
• Uses LLMs such as ChatGPT, Cursor, Wispr Flow, Claude, KaitoAI, aixbt or similar in their daily workflow

Requirements

• Python
• Typescript
• React

Responsibilities

• Scope and own technical solutions for user problems end-to‑end
• Consider and implement UX solutions based on refined personal taste and direct user feedback
• Make and implement architectural decisions
• Develop and optimize Slate’s execution engine to integrate more protocols, solvers, and chains, better map user intents, increase reliability and increase speed
• Lead small teams to execute your solutions as necessary
• Review and test code developed by other team members

Why join Slate?

• Slate is a small, elite team of five with prior experience launching products in crypto. We’re lean and hyper‑performance oriented (not chasing hype, status or narratives, but rather focusing on long‑term value creation).
• One of the strongest AI companies in crypto.
• Backed by S‑Tier crypto VC firm and countless other investors.
• Slate’s AI agent will bridge the crypto UX gap, explode the productivity of crypto’s users, make crypto accessible globally and exponentially grow the GDP of the blockchain industry.
• You will be a core part of the team and have outsized impact on shaping the future direction of the product, company and crypto at large.

Compensation

Negotiable, dependent on experience level. $140k–$180k cash + 0.75%–1.5% equity.

Contact

Contact us at [e-mail] with your portfolio/github, how you heard about us, why you think AI x Crypto makes sense, specific technical challenges you think we currently or will face, your ideal role on the team and why Slate.