Rust Engineer

Arcus Search; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive salary

In-office five days a week

Job summary

Arcus Search is seeking a Rust backend engineer to help build the core infrastructure powering real-time trading. You’ll own critical systems for risk, execution, and high-throughput data flows, collaborating closely with a small, focused team in San Francisco.

Ideal candidates have 2–4 years in backend development, production Rust experience, and comfort with asynchronous services, REST/WebSocket APIs, and Docker-based deployments.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years of backend software engineering experience.
• Production experience with Rust is a must and knowledge of ownership, lifetimes, and asynchronous programming.
• Strong systems knowledge across networking, databases, concurrency and performance.
• Experience building asynchronous services; familiarity with Tokio is particularly relevant.
• Experience developing REST or WebSocket APIs and working with distributed systems.
• A performance-driven mindset and an interest in building reliable, latency-sensitive infrastructure.
• Comfort deploying and debugging production services, with experience using Docker and monitoring tools.

Responsibilities

• Own critical backend systems supporting real-time trading, risk management and execution across multiple venues.
• Develop risk & liquidation engines to manage exposure and capital efficiency.
• Design blockchain state machines underpinning trading, settlement and risk operations.
• Build asynchronous distributed services that maintain consistent state using coordination, voting and consensus mechanisms.
• Process high-throughput market data, manage WebSocket connections and coordinate time-sensitive actions across trading venues.
• Develop high-performance REST and WebSocket APIs designed for millisecond-level response times.
• Profile, debug and optimise production Rust systems, focusing on concurrency and throughput.

Skills

Backend development

Rust

Asynchronous programming

Distributed systems

WebSocket APIs

Tools

Docker

Tokio

Job description

The Opportunity

Are you a Rust engineer who wants to build systems where performance, reliability and concurrency genuinely matter?

We're partnering with an ambitious, well-funded crypto trading startup that's building a unified platform to simplify how users trade across digital asset markets. Backed by $15M+ in funding, the business is bringing fragmented trading venues, cross-chain assets and prediction markets into a single trading experience.

With experienced founders who have previously built successful trading technology and operated high-frequency trading businesses, this is an opportunity to join a small engineering team tackling complex problems at the intersection of Rust, blockchain and real-time trading.

They're hiring 3–5 Software Engineers to help build the core infrastructure powering the platform.

What You'll Be Working On

You’ll take ownership of critical backend systems that support real-time trading, risk management and execution across multiple venues.

• Risk & liquidation engines: Develop systems that manage exposure, optimise capital efficiency and respond to rapidly changing market conditions.
• Blockchain state machines: Design and implement the systems underpinning trading, settlement and risk operations.
• Distributed systems: Build asynchronous services that maintain consistent state using coordination, voting and consensus mechanisms.
• Real-time market data: Process high-throughput event streams, manage WebSocket connections and coordinate time-sensitive actions across trading venues.
• High-performance APIs: Develop REST and WebSocket APIs designed for millisecond-level response times.
• Performance engineering: Profile, debug and optimise production Rust systems, making informed decisions around concurrency, memory allocation and throughput.

What they're Looking For

• 2–4 years of backend software engineering experience.
• Production experience with Rust is a must and a strong understanding of ownership, lifetimes and asynchronous programming.
• Solid systems knowledge across networking, databases, concurrency and performance optimisation.
• Experience building asynchronous services; familiarity with Tokio is particularly relevant.
• Experience developing REST or WebSocket APIs and working with distributed systems.
• A performance-driven mindset and an interest in building reliable, latency-sensitive infrastructure.
• Comfort deploying and debugging production services, with experience using Docker and monitoring tools.
• The ability to collaborate closely with a small, technically focused team.

Why Join?

Meaningful engineering ownership: Work directly on the core systems that power trading, risk and execution rather than peripheral product features.

A well-funded startup: Join a business that has raised over $15M and is investing in building its trading platform and engineering team.

Experienced founders: Learn from leaders with backgrounds in exchange execution technology and high-frequency crypto trading.

Complex technical challenges: Work with production Rust, asynchronous systems, blockchain infrastructure and high-throughput market data, where engineering decisions have a direct impact on performance.

Competitive package: $185,000–$300,000 base salary, plus equity, depending on experience and qualifications.

Small, collaborative team: Work closely with engineers and founders, with the opportunity to influence architecture and technical direction as the business grows.

Location & Working Arrangements

• Working model: Fully in-office, five days per week.
• Compensation: $185,000–$300,000 base salary plus equity.

If you're a Rust engineer interested in distributed systems, blockchain execution and the engineering challenges behind real-time trading, this is an opportunity to help build the infrastructure from the ground up.