Senior Software Engineer, Backend

SOLANA FOUNDATION; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Helius is seeking a Staff Backend Engineer to own core systems like Gatekeeper, Data Streaming, Historical APIs, or Account Index, sitting at the heart of Solana's infrastructure. You will set technical direction, make architectural decisions, and collaborate directly with founders and engineering leadership to define what and how we build in a small team with enormous scope.

The role emphasizes high-performance, scalable systems, mentorship, and a strong focus on operational excellence,

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience shipping production systems at scale.
• Strong systems-level intuition underlying abstractions.
• Proficiency in Rust (strongly preferred), C++, or Go.
• Experience debugging and optimizing latency-sensitive or high-throughput systems.
• Ability to own problems end-to-end with minimal direction.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and release novel, performance-sensitive products that transform the developer experience on Solana
• Optimize production systems - profiling, benchmarking, and improving latency and throughput
• Collaborate with staff engineers and founders on architectural and product decisions
• Improve operational excellence - observability, incident response, and making systems easier to run
• Mentor junior engineers and raise the technical bar across the team

Skills

Backend engineering

Systems thinking

Rust (preferred)

C++

Go

Latency optimization

Ownership

Job description

About Helius

Helius is a leading developer platform on the Solana blockchain, dedicated to inspiring and accelerating the creation of crypto-powered software. Customers like Coinbase, Jupiter, and Phantom use Helius to power their applications on Solana.

We've raised over $34m from Haun Ventures, Founders Fund, Foundation Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, Chapter One and angel investors including Solana co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, and Balaji Srinivasan. Our team members have previously built mission-critical, scalable infrastructure at AWS, Coinbase, Stripe, Google, Digital Ocean, and more.

Read our Helius Manifesto to see how we work and what we value.

About the Role

We're looking for a Staff Backend Engineer to take ownership of one of our core systems - Gatekeeper, Data Streaming, Historical APIs, or Account Index. These are the foundational layers of Helius's infrastructure, operating at the intersection of extreme performance requirements and real-world scale. Each system sits in the critical path of the Solana ecosystem.

At this level, you're not just building - you're setting technical direction, making architectural decisions that shape the platform for years, and raising the bar for everyone around you. You'll work directly with founders and engineering leadership to define what we build and how we build it. Small team, enormous scope, and the expectation that you'll own your domain end-to-end.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and release novel, performance-sensitive products that transform the developer experience on Solana

• Optimize production systems - profiling, benchmarking, and improving latency and throughput

• Collaborate with staff engineers and founders on architectural and product decisions

• Improve operational excellence - observability, incident response, and making systems easier to run

• Mentor junior engineers and raise the technical bar across the team
  

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience with a track record of shipping production systems at scale

• Strong systems-level intuition - you understand what's happening beneath the abstractions

• Proficiency in Rust (strongly preferred), C++, or Go

• Experience debugging and optimizing latency-sensitive or high-throughput systems

• Demonstrated ability to own problems end-to-end with minimal direction

• High intensity, high ownership - you hold yourself to an exceptional standard

• Prior exposure to engineering cultures that prioritize operational excellence, reliability, and customer impact

Nice to Have

• Deep Rust experience in a production, performance-critical environment

• Experience with distributed systems, storage engines, or streaming infrastructure

• Familiarity with profiling tools - flamegraphs, perf, valgrind

• Interest in Solana, blockchain infrastructure, or real-time financial systems

• On-call experience and operational ownership of production services

• Mix of large and small company experience strongly preferred - you've built the habits and can operate at both speeds

Why Helius?

• High-impact work: Your code will power applications used by millions across the Solana ecosystem, including Coinbase, Jupiter, and Phantom.

• Serious engineering: Build fast, reliable systems and user experiences across distributed infra, high-throughput backends, and modern frontend stacks.

• Ownership & growth: Lead critical initiatives, influence architecture and product direction, and take on more responsibility as the company scales.

• Remote-first flexibility: Work where you're most effective with a flexible, fully distributed team.

• Competitive comp & perks: Market-leading salary, meaningful equity, generous vacation, wellness budgets, and support for learning and travel.

• Mission-driven team: Join ambitious builders who move fast, take ownership, and are shaping the future of decentralized apps.