Founding Platform Engineer

MLabs Ltd; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity upside

Flexible schedules

Remote-first

Job summary

MLabs Ltd seeks a founding Platform Engineer (Staff+ level) to own the core platform architecture, data layer, and API surface for a high-performance crypto trading platform. You will integrate perpetual and spot trading engines, unify diverse data sources, and ensure reliability at scale.

You will lead design decisions for latency budgets, data delivery, and cross-chain abstraction in a fully remote, fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to design resilient, high-performance platforms that withstand massive traffic.
• Experience building financial rewards and accounting systems with idempotency and replay safety.
• Deep understanding of end-to-end latency budgets from input to render.

Responsibilities

• Own the core platform architecture, data layer, rewards engine, and API surface.
• Integrate perpetual trading via Hyperliquid and spot trading via Jupiter/Relay.
• Harmonize data from multiple providers into a single source of truth.
• Implement caching and scalable data delivery to handle peak volumes.
• Design cross-chain abstraction to keep multi-chain balances invisible to users.
• Ensure uptime and reliability during market volatility and heavy loads.

Skills

Rust

Distributed systems

Low-latency design

Data pipelines

System resilience

Latency budgets

Remote collaboration

Tools

PostgreSQL

Redis

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

We are hiring on behalf of our client, a fast-growing innovator in the crypto and decentralized finance space who is seeking a Founding Platform Engineer (Staff+ level) to join the team. This organization is behind a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on HyperEVM, having achieved significant revenue milestones with an ultra-lean team. The client is now expanding its technical architecture to build an advanced, mobile-first crypto trading platform (spot + perps) alongside a novel, original social product featuring cutting-edge mechanisms.

As the first and only engineer in this specialized domain, the incoming candidate will take an original product vision and turn it into a robust, high-performance system—holding the entire architecture and the smallest details simultaneously. The operational environment is primarily asynchronous, highly independent, and built for top-tier developers who can scale infrastructure from zero to massive daily trading volumes while maintaining absolute reliability.

• Platform Ownership: Own the core platform, including the data layer, rewards engine, notifications, the API surface, and overall system reliability.
• Trading Engine Integration: Integrate perpetual trading engines through Hyperliquid, alongside spot trading via Jupiter and Relay.
• Data Harmonization: Aggregate and unify conflicting data providers (such as Zerion, CoinGecko, Mobula, Alchemy, and Hyperliquid) into a single, cohesive source of truth.
• High-Performance Data Delivery: Serve heavy data rapidly by implementing resilient caching mechanisms that survive traffic stampedes and fan-out structures that hold under pressure.
• Cross-Chain Abstraction: Design architecture that makes a single USDC balance across multiple chains entirely invisible and seamless to the end user.
• Peak Performance & Reliability: Maintain absolute uptime during peak market volatility; ensure the application never lags or crashes when it matters most, guaranteeing users can always close positions.

Requirements

• Proven track record of engineering resilience, including keeping a high-stakes system alive through massive traffic spikes and determining graceful degradation strategies in advance.
• Extensive experience building financial rewards and accounting systems that withstand retries, prioritizing idempotency, replay safety, and precise lot tracking.
• Deep understanding of end-to-end latency budgets (from a user's tap to screen rendering).
• Advanced database optimization skills, capable of resolving bottlenecks directly within PostgreSQL rather than relying on secondary databases.
• Strong proficiency in Rust development.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, remote environment across North American or European timezones.

Competitive Compensation: Top-market base salary paired with significant equity upside.

Flexible & Remote-First Work: 100% remote working model with flexible schedules and high operational autonomy.

Due to the high volume of applications we anticipate, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback to all candidates. If you do not hear back from us within 4 weeks of your application, please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion. We genuinely appreciate your interest and wish you the best in your job search.

Commitment to Equality and Accessibility

At MLabs, we are committed to offer equal opportunities to all candidates.

We ensure no discrimination, accessible job adverts, and providing information in accessible formats.

Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace with equal opportunities for all.

If you need any reasonable adjustments during any part of the hiring process or you would like to see the job-advert in an accessible format please let us know at the earliest opportunity by emailing [e-mail].

MLabs Ltd collects and processes the personal information you provide such as your contact details, work history, resume, and other relevant data for recruitment purposes only. This information is managed securely in accordance with MLabs Ltd’s Privacy Policy and Information Security Policy, and in compliance with applicable data protection laws. Your data may be shared only with clients and trusted partners where necessary for recruitment purposes. You may request the deletion of your data or withdraw your consent at any time by contacting [e-mail].