Solana Protocol Engineer

SOLANA FOUNDATION; International Falls (MN); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Perena, the risk-layer protocol on Solana, seeks an experienced engineer to design and implement end-to-end funds movement and settlement across on-chain and off-chain systems.

You will build custody, key management, and on-chain flows in Solana (Rust) with cross-chain considerations, ensuring secure, auditable, and scalable infrastructure for USD*. This role demands hands-on experience with financial systems and high-stakes environments.

Qualifications

• 3+ years building financial systems where correctness and settlement guarantees are non-negotiable.
• Experience with on-chain and cross-chain payment flows and custody/settlement.
• Proven track record orchestrating flow of funds across multiple venues with reconciliation and settlement.
• Familiarity with Solana Rust/Anchor or EVM Solidity, and secure key management architectures.

Responsibilities

• Design flow-of-funds orchestration across venues and chains — bridging, routing, rebalancing between custodial and non-custodial systems — with reliable settlement, reconciliation, and failure handling as first-class concerns
• Develop custody and key management patterns that meet institutional-grade security requirements across custodial and non-custodial environments
• Build on-chain settlement and payment flows, including integrations with DEXs, lending markets, custodians, and bridge infrastructure — starting on Solana (Rust) and extending across EVM and other chains as we scale
• Build and maintain the systems that move Perena's money: minting/redeeming USD*, allocating collateral, and routing capital between on-chain protocols, centralized custodians/exchanges, and partner bank rails

Skills

Financial systems design

Settlement and payments rails

On-chain development

Solana Rust/Anchor

Security and risk management

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Welcome to Perena: Your Risk Layer on Solana

Perena is a decentralized financial protocol on Solana that offers USD STAR (USD*), a yield-bearing asset. USD* is fully collateralized and earns yield from diversified, real sources such as delta-neutral strategies and secured borrow-lend market positions. Its value grows automatically, making it a simple, secure way to save on-chain.

USD* is fully collateralized by a diversified portfolio of yield-generating assets and positions, including:

Delta-neutral hedged positions on centralized and decentralized exchanges (e.g., BTC, ETH, SOL)

Secured borrow-lend market positions involving on-chain stablecoins

Real-world assets, such as the reinsurance fund by OnRe

Perena actively manages asset allocation and diversifies across multiple strategies to reduce single points of failure and optimize for sustainable, consistent yield performance.

Built on Solana's high-performance blockchain, Perena is creating a liquid, yield-bearing digital dollar that anyone can access with a sustainable, risk-managed approach.

Looking ahead, Perena is building a full suite of on-chain stablebanking products to expand access to real yield across crypto and traditional finance. The goal is a sustainable financial experience for anyone to transact, save, and invest on-chain.

Perena is founded by a team of builders from the Solana ecosystem with backgrounds in TradFi and DeFi. We believe deeply in pushing financial architecture forward — and in doing it with transparency, resilience, and speed.

We’re backed by some of the best in the world, including:

• Solana co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal

• Investors from Citadel, Jane Street, IMC, and Susquehanna

• Borderless Capital, Binance Labs, Primitive Ventures, Maelstrom, Anagram, Breed, and others

Perena was a sponsor of the Colosseum Hackathon Stablecoin Track, helping fund the next generation of stablecoin projects on Solana. Our growing community spans over 20,000 developers, users, and builders aligned around one goal: reinventing how money works.

What You’ll do

• Design flow-of-funds orchestration across venues and chains — bridging, routing, rebalancing between custodial and non-custodial systems — with reliable settlement, reconciliation, and failure handling as first-class concerns

• Develop custody and key management patterns that meet institutional-grade security requirements across custodial and non-custodial environments

• Build on-chain settlement and payment flows, including integrations with DEXs, lending markets, custodians, and bridge infrastructure — starting on Solana (Rust) and extending across EVM and other chains as we scale

• Build and maintain the systems that move Perena's money: minting/redeeming USD*, allocating collateral, and routing capital between on-chain protocols, centralized custodians/exchanges, and partner bank rails

What We’re Looking For

• 3+ years building financial systems where correctness and settlement guarantees are non-negotiable — payment rails, custody/settlement infrastructure, or trading systems

• Direct experience building payment rails, stablecoin infrastructure, or institutional custody/settlement systems — ideally at places like Bridge, BVNK, Fireblocks, a fund, a market maker, or an exchange/custodian

• Experience as a protocol/systems dev at a market maker, prop shop, custodian, or crypto exchange is a strong signal

• Proven track record orchestrating flow of funds across multiple venues — moving real money between on-chain and off-chain systems with attention to reconciliation, settlement, and failure modes

• Working knowledge of on-chain development (Solana Rust/Anchor or EVM Solidity), or clear ability to ramp fast — you don't need to be a Solana perf specialist, but you should reason fluently about how funds move on-chain

• Experience with secure key management, multisig, or MPC custody architectures

• Familiarity with DeFi primitives (AMMs, lending protocols, vaults) and how yield strategies are structured and executed

• Strong security instinct: you think in attack vectors and have worked through audit processes

• Comfort in fast-moving, high-stakes environments

Earlier in your career? Apply anyway if you can show real campaign ownership, sharp writing, and a clear point of view on the market.

Why Perena?

Stablecoins are transforming how the world stores, moves, and grows value — and we’re still early. This is a once-in-a-generation shift: from legacy money to programmable, accessible, internet-native finance. Building here isn’t just technically interesting — it’s globally meaningful.

We own our future — we trust each other to take initiative. Voices are heard and outcomes matter.

We treat our work as craft — thoughtful, opinionated, and precise.Many of us come from design, art, or cultural backgrounds.

We think from first principles — Perena is a reimagining of financial infrastructure. That starts with reimagining how we build.

We work in public — we value clarity, writing, and sharing progress openly within the team and with our community.