Senior Protocol Engineer

RootstockLabs; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work from EU/LA

Learning sponsorship

CoWorking access

Paid time off

Job summary

RootstockLabs seeks a Senior Protocol Engineer to join its Rollup team and scale a Bitcoin-secured Layer 2. The role is hands-on, remote, full-time, with responsibility across sequencing, block derivation, consensus and finality, as well as bridge and proof systems.

You’ll operate on a codebase that underpins live network activity and contribute to architecture decisions. You’ll collaborate with product, DevOps and security to plan releases, review code, and improve performance across

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering, with at least 2 years in blockchain core or protocol development (node clients, consensus, etc.).
• Solid production experience in Go, Rust or Java.
• Deep knowledge of blockchain internals and the EVM: consensus, P2P networking, state/storage, transaction lifecycle, JSON-RPC.
• Experience with large codebases you did not write.
• AI-assisted development is a core part of your work and ownership.
• Strong English communication in an international/remote team.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain core protocol components: execution and consensus clients, sequencer, block derivation and batch submission to the parent chain.
• Work on the bridge and the proof system: deposits, withdrawals, cross-layer messages and state validation.
• Maintain a large open source codebase: ensure safety for a live network and easy evolvability.
• Review code, write design docs and RFCs, participate in architecture decisions.
• Test and debug a distributed system: unit tests, devnets, reorgs, performance issues.
• Deliver and operate releases on public chains: upgrades, hard forks, monitoring and incidents.

Skills

5+ years experience

Go

Rust

Java

EVM knowledge

Large codebases

AI-assisted development

Autonomy

English

Layer 2 rollups

Bitcoin knowledge

Docker

Prometheus

Grafana

Solidity reading

Tools

Go

Rust

Java

Docker

Prometheus

Grafana

JSON-RPC

Job description

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a Senior Protocol Engineer to join our Rollup team. This is a hands-on, full-time engineering role focused on building and scaling our Bitcoin-secured Layer 2 rollup on Rootstock. This is a protocol role: you'll work directly on the chain on topics such as sequencing, block derivation, consensus and finality, bridge and proof system. You will join a small team of senior engineers with high ownership. You will design, build, test and operate core components, and you will take part in the technical decisions of the project.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design, build and maintain core protocol components: execution and consensus clients, sequencer, block derivation and batch submission to the parent chain.
• Work on the bridge and the proof system: deposits, withdrawals, cross-layer messages and state validation.
• Maintain a large open source codebase: learn how its parts work together, make changes that are safe for a live network, and keep the code easy to evolve.
• Review code, write design docs and RFCs, and take part in architecture decisions.
• Test and debug a distributed system: unit to adversarial tests, local devnets, reorgs, node desync and performance problems.
• Deliver and operate releases on public chains: upgrades, hard forks, monitoring and incidents, etc.
• Collaborate with Product, DevOps and Security to plan and ship each release.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Must have 5+ years of professional software engineering, with at least 2 years in blockchain core or protocol development (node clients, consensus, etc.).
• Solid production experience in mainstream languages (for example Go, Rust or Java).
• Deep knowledge of blockchain internals and the EVM: consensus, P2P networking, state and storage, transaction lifecycle, JSON-RPC, etc.
• Experience working effectively in large codebases you did not write.
• AI-assisted development is a core part of your work, while owning what you deliver.
• Autonomy and ownership: you help define the work, not only execute assigned tasks.
• Good English, spoken and written, since the team is international and remote.
• Nice to have Professional experience with Go and/or Rust.
• Hands-on experience with Ethereum Layer 2 rollups (optimistic or ZK).
• Understanding of rollup design: sequencing, data availability, derivation, finality, etc.
• Contributions to open source blockchain clients or rollup stacks.
• Experience with fault proof systems or validity proofs.
• Knowledge of Bitcoin and EVM compatible chains.
• Experience with Docker, cloud providers, Prometheus and Grafana.
• Able to read and review Solidity (bridge and system contracts).

ROOTIES BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation package and unique benefits designed to support your growth and well-being.
• 100% Remote Work from Europe & Latin America, with access to global CoWorking spaces.
• Work-Life Balance: Paid vacation and sick leave days
• Continuous Learning: Access to training programs, language courses, and learning sponsorship annually.
• Unique Projects: Work with cutting-edge blockchain technology in a global, diverse team.

ABOUT ROOTSTOCKLABS

RootstockLabs is a key contributor to Rootstock, Bitcoin's Financial Infrastructure for lending, yield, and onchain capital markets. We build and commercialize the institutional infrastructure that turns Bitcoin into productive capital. What we do: Develop and commercialize Bitcoin-backed lending, tokenized real-world assets, and onchain financial strategies Who we work with: Leading custodians, asset managers, and financial institutions Why it matters: Rootstock is secured by 80%+ of Bitcoin's hash power and has run with 100% uptime since 2018 (bringing Ethereum-style programmability to the world's hardest money). Proof it works: 200+ dApps live on Rootstock, from BTCFi protocols like Sushiswap and Oku to institutional names like Mercado Bitcoin, Animoca Brands, and Paystand Originally posted on Himalayas