Protocol Solutions Engineer

Etherealize, Inc; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 225,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision

401(k)

Generous PTO

Job summary

Etherealize, Inc. in Austin, TX is seeking an exceptional engineer to own on-top development for our privacy protocol. You’ll design and build DeFi applications that run on our new privacy layer, collaborating with protocol leads and CTO.

You should have deep familiarity with the EVM, Solidity, and DeFi, comfortable in unfamiliar environments, and willing to work US or European hours. We offer a base salary of $225k–$250k plus equity, and benefits including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), and

Qualifications

• Proven track record as a senior engineer or security researcher with deep familiarity with the EVM, Solidity and DeFi.
• Ability to work in novel, non-standard programming environments and build from first principles.
• Experience with ZK / Privacy protocols or willingness to learn new protocol quirks.
• Strong protocol thinking and problem-solving in uncertain information scenarios.
• Willingness to work US or European hours to collaborate with the team.

Responsibilities

• Own the build-on-top work of our privacy protocol, designing and implementing novel DeFi applications.
• Collaborate with protocol leads and CTO to turn the privacy layer into real client-ready solutions.
• Architect and implement privacy-native DeFi integrations and external partner components.

Skills

EVM familiarity

Solidity

DeFi

ZK / Privacy protocols

Protocol thinking

US/European hours

Job description

Be the First to Build on the Privacy Layer for Institutional Finance

Why Etherealize?

Etherealize is building the rails to bring Wall Street into the 21st century. Today's financial infrastructure wastes billions in trapped capital and operational inefficiency, forcing institutions to maintain massive reserves, limiting market liquidity, and creating systemic risk that grows more dangerous as markets become increasingly global and interconnected.

With $40M in funding from Electric Capital and Paradigm, we are bringing together the best minds from Ethereum and Wall Street to rebuild the infrastructure that underpins the financial system — faster, safer, fully on-chain.

Why This Role Exists

Our team has spent the past year building our core privacy protocol: a Rust and ZK codebase that underpins everything else Etherealize does. That protocol is now maturing into a stable foundation, and the work is shifting from building the protocol itself to building on top of it.

Today that build-on-top work is split across our protocol leads and CTO. We are hiring someone to own it. This is not a cryptography role, and we are not looking for another ZK researcher.

We are looking for an exceptional engineer who thrives when handed a new, unusual programming environment and asked to make something real with it; the kind of person who would have been among the first to build a DeFi application on an experimental new protocol and enjoyed working out the first answers.

What Will You Do?

We're in the fortunate situation of having a cool new primitive and a lineup of clients who are ready to put their assets on top of it. Your job is to build the novel applications that will allow these clients to move more of their activity on chain, including:

• Privacy Native DeFi: Translating traditional financial infrastructure into privacy native onchain protocols, architecting and building the ultimate solutions to unlock these markets.
• External Partner Solutions: Working with partners to integrate with our privacy infrastructure, building custom components to solve their needs.
• DeFi Integrations: Building bridges between our private environment and the rest of public Ethereum; understanding existing protocols and how they can be used as legos to solve client needs.

Who Are You?

You are an engineer who has proven you can solve genuinely hard problems in unfamiliar territory. You have lived in EVM environments, but what sets you apart is not knowing Solidity syntax well, it is being able to think about a protocol, make hard design decisions, and keep up when the usual patterns stop applying.

Required

• A track record as a senior engineer or security researcher with deep familiarity with the EVM, Solidity and DeFi.
• Demonstrated ability to work in novel, non-standard programming environments and build from first principles rather than pattern-matching.
• Experience working with ZK / Privacy protocols, or comfort learning the quirks of a new protocol. ZK expertise is not required.
• Strong protocol thinking and raw problem-solving ability, and the judgment to make sound design decisions with incomplete information.
• Willingness to work US or European hours to collaborate closely with the team.

What's In It For You?

• Blank-sheet problems with real clients attached. Major institutions are already moving large volumes of assets into our privacy environment, and there is a queue of things to build around them: privacy-native lending, custom asset implementations, custodian integrations. You turn those needs into working protocols.
• First dedicated engineer on a new programming model. Today this work is done personally by our CTO and protocol leads. You take it over, solve problems nobody has solved before, and set the patterns everyone after you follows.
• A team you can't fake your way onto. You'll work daily with protocol engineers with deep ZK and cryptography backgrounds, and leadership includes Danny Ryan, who led Ethereum's research through the Merge, and CTO, Zach Obront, who has secured $10B+ in on-chain assets.
• Location: Austin, TX preferred. Remote within the US considered for an exceptional candidate.
• Compensation: $225k-$250k base salary + equity.
  
  • Candidate's final comp package based on prior experience, qualifications, job-related skills, and interview performance.
• Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision healthcare, 401(k), generous PTO, and more. See overview here .

Etherealize values diversity in all its forms. We welcome qualified applicants of every background and identity.

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