OP Labs - Senior Software Engineer, Protocol (Rust)

United States Digital Space LLC; United States; Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

OP Labs is building the OP Stack and seeking mission-driven contributors to ship production Rust systems and conformance tests.

You will own features through full lifecycle, build rigorous conformance tests, and collaborate across teams to improve protocol upgrades and performance.

We are remote-friendly with NYC as our center of gravity, backed by top investors, and we move fast to support the ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Proven experience building production Rust systems for distributed networks.
• Strong knowledge of Ethereum (EVM, JSON-RPC) and protocol design.
• Experience with conformance testing and safe protocol upgrades.

Responsibilities

• Own features through full lifecycle from design to deployment.
• Build rigorous conformance and adversarial tests.
• Improve protocol upgrades, performance, and availability.
• Contribute to production-grade Rust tooling and code reviews.
• Collaborate across cross-functional teams to maximize impact.

Skills

Rust

Go

Ethereum

Distributed systems

Security

Tests

Tools

op-node

kona

Reth

Rust tooling

Job description

OP Labs builds Optimism, an open-source blockchain network that powers the next generation of financial infrastructure. Hundreds of companies, from the world's largest enterprises like Sony, Coinbase, Kraken, Uniswap, OKX, and Bitpanda to the most ambitious early-stage builders, use the OP stack to launch their own blockchains and bring their users onchain. Today, over 65% of Layer 2 activity on Ethereum runs through the OP stack.

We are a small team building at the speed of the ecosystem we support. We’re remote-friendly but the NYC office is our center of gravity. We've raised $178M from a16z, Paradigm, and others. We have our work cut out for us and are looking for exceptional people to join us.

OP Labs builds the OP Stack, powering over 50% of Ethereum's L2 activity. Our Protocol Team designs and operates the core specifications and clients defining the stack.

We are also building OP Enterprise, which enables major institutions inside and outside crypto—including Sony, Kraken, and Bitpanda—to launch and operate OP Stack chains. This creates opportunities to improve the underlying protocol while developing differentiated capabilities for enterprise chain operators. Near term projects may cover:

• Developing kona-node and related Rust-based consensus-client infrastructure as a fully compatible and production-ready alternative to op-node
• Implementing native account abstraction across the stack.
• Developing premium protocol capabilities that support OP Enterprise

We are seeking mission-driven contributors who thrive on tackling complex computer science challenges while delivering high quality code with high-velocity.

What are the role responsibilities?

• Own features through the full lifecycle: from architecture, implementation, and docs to deployment and monitoring. Working cross functionally to create maximum impact.
• Build rigorous conformance and adversarial tests to ensure implementation compatibility.
• Execute safe protocol upgrades and resolve complex availability/performance issues.
• Use AI-assisted engineering tools effectively while maintaining rigorous standards for correctness, security, review, and technical ownership.
• Professional record of shipping production software and maintainable Rust systems.
• Deep knowledge of Ethereum (EVM, JSON-RPC, clients) and distributed systems.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and communicate complex design decisions effectively.
• (Preferred) Familiarity with op-node, kona, or Reth implementations.
• (Preferred) Ability to read and navigate production Go code while migrating behavior into Rust.
• (Bonus) Proficiency in Solidity for system-level smart contracts.