Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform

TRM Labs; United States; Remote; USD 240,000 - 265,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a mission-driven company at the forefront of blockchain intelligence, where you'll leverage advanced analytics to combat illicit activity and enhance global security. As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll work on building scalable data infrastructure that processes vast amounts of blockchain data, collaborating with experts across various fields. This role offers you the chance to make a meaningful impact while working in a dynamic, remote-first environment. If you're passionate about technology and eager to tackle complex challenges, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Benefits

Remote-first work culture

Professional development opportunities

Equity plan participation

Collaborative team environment

Flexible work hours

Global team collaboration

Regular team offsites

Virtual coffee chats

Onboarding buddies

Async communication emphasis

Qualifications

• 7+ years in distributed system architecture and production deployment.
• Experience with data processing technologies and streaming workflows.

Responsibilities

• Build reliable data services for blockchain integration.
• Develop ETL pipelines for real-time data processing.
• Design data models for optimal storage and retrieval.

Skills

Python

SQL

SparkSQL

Data Engineering

ETL Pipelines

Data Processing

Cloud Infrastructure

Data Modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Airflow

DBT

Docker

Terraform

Kubernetes

Datadog

Icerberg

Trino

BigQuery

StarRocks

Citus

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Job description

TRM Labs is a blockchain intelligence company committed to fighting crime and creating a safer world. By leveraging blockchain data, threat intelligence, and advanced analytics, our products empower governments, financial institutions, and crypto businesses to combat illicit activity and global security threats. At TRM, you'll join a mission-driven, fast-paced team made up of experts in law enforcement, data science, engineering, and financial intelligence, tackling complex global challenges daily. Whether analyzing blockchain data, developing cutting-edge tools, or collaborating with global organizations, you'll have the opportunity to make a meaningful and lasting impact.

The Data Platform team collaborates with an experienced group of data scientists, engineers, and product managers to build highly available and scalable data infrastructure for TRM's products and services. As a Staff Software Engineer on the Data Platform team, you will be responsible for executing mission-critical systems and data services that analyze blockchain transaction activity at petabyte scale, and ultimately work to build a safer financial system for billions of people.

The impact you’ll have here:

• Build highly reliable data services to integrate with dozens of blockchains.
• Develop complex ETL pipelines that transform and process petabytes of structured and unstructured data in real-time.
• Design and architect intricate data models for optimal storage and retrieval to support sub-second latency for querying blockchain data.
• Oversee the deployment and monitoring of large database clusters with an unwavering focus on performance and high availability.
• Collaborate across departments, partnering with data scientists, backend engineers, and product managers to design and implement novel data models that enhance TRM’s products.

What we’re looking for:

• A Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science or a related field.
• A proven track record, with 7+ years of hands-on experience in architecting distributed system architecture, guiding projects from initial ideation through to successful production deployment.
• Exceptional programming skills in Python, as well as adeptness in SQL or SparkSQL.
• Versatility that spans the entire spectrum of data engineering in one or more of the following areas:
  
  • In-depth experience with data stores such as Icerberg, Trino, BigQuery, and StarRocks, and Citus.
  • Proficiency in data pipeline and workflow orchestration tools like Airflow, DBT, etc.
  • Expertise in data processing technologies and streaming workflows including Spark, Kafka, and Flink.
  • Competence in deploying and monitoring infrastructure within public cloud platforms, utilizing tools such as Docker, Terraform, Kubernetes, and Datadog.
  • Proven ability in loading, querying, and transforming extensive datasets.

About the Team:

• The Data Platform team is the funnel between all of TRM's data world and product world. We care about all layers of stack including petabyte of data stores, pipelines, and processes.
• We have quite a big scope as a the team with new and exciting projects every quarter. As a result, we collaborate across the board with most teams at TRM.
• We believe in async communication and are also not afraid to jump on a quick huddle if that helps to move things faster. We are both scrappy when the situation demands and also process-oriented when we need to achieve our OKRs.
• We are always looking for people who can elevate the quality our tech and our execution. If you enjoy a remote-first and async friendly environment to achieve efficacy and efficiency at petabyte scale, our team could be a great pick for you!
• Team members are based in the US across almost all timezones! Our on-call tends to be in EST/PST shift, whatever suits you the best.
• We do try to reserve some overlap in the day for meetings. Our north star - no IC spends more than 3-4 hours/week in meetings.

Learn about TRM Speed in this position:

• Buildscalable engines to optimize routine scaling and maintenance tasks like create self-serve automation for creating new pgbouncer, scaling disks, scaling/updating of clusters, etc.
• Enable tasks to be faster next time and reducing dependency on a single person.
• Identify ways to compress timelines using80/20 principle. For instance, what does it take to be operational in a new environment? Identify the must have and nice to haves that are need to deploy our stack to be fully operation. Focus on must haves first to get us operational and then use future milestones to harden for customer readiness.We think in terms of weeks and not months.
• Identify first version, a.k.a., "skateboards" for projects. For instance, build an observability dashboard within a week. Gather feedback from stakeholders after to identify more needs or bells and whistles to add to the dashboard.

About TRM's Engineering Levels:

Engineer: Responsible for helping to define project milestones and executing small decision decisions independently with the appropriate tradeoffs between simplicity, readability, and performance. Provides mentorship to junior engineers, and enhances operational excellence through tech debt reduction and knowledge sharing.

Senior Engineer: Successfully designs and documents system improvements and features for an OKR/project from the ground up. Consistently delivers efficient and reusable systems, optimizes team throughput with appropriate tradeoffs, mentors team members, and enhances cross-team collaboration through documentation and knowledge sharing.

Staff Engineer:Drives scoping and execution of one or more OKRs/projects that impact multiple teams. Partners with stakeholders to set the team vision and technical roadmaps for one or more products. Is a role model and mentor to the entire engineering organization. Ensures system health and quality with operational reviews, testing strategies, and monitoring rigor.

The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role:

• Individual pay is determined by skills, qualifications, experience, and location. The compensation details listed in this posting reflect the US base salary only.
• The estimated base salary range for this role is $240,000 - $265,000.
• Additionally, this role may be eligible to participate in TRM’s equity plan.
• Please note – we factor in the different costs for geographies outside the United States.

Life at TRM Labs

Leadership Principles

Our LPs are foundational elements of our strategy, guiding how we make decisions, how we treat each other, and how we behave day-to-day.

• Impact-Oriented Trailblazer – We put customers first, driving for speed, focus, and adaptability.
• Master Craftsperson– We prioritize speed, high standards, and distributed ownership.
• Inspiring Colleague– We value humility, candor, and a one-team mindset.

Accelerate your Career

Join a mission-driven team of industry leaders and make a real-world impact—disrupting terrorist networks, recovering stolen funds, and more. At TRM, you will:

• Work alongside top experts and learn every day.
• Embrace a growth mindset with development opportunities tailored to your role.
• Take on high-impact challenges in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Thrive as a Global Team

As a remote-first company, TRM Labs is built for global collaboration.

• We cultivate a strong remote culture through clear communication, thorough documentation, and meaningful relationships.
• We invest in offsites, regional meetups, virtual coffee chats, and onboarding buddies to foster collaboration.
• By prioritizing trust and belonging, we harness the strengths of a global team while staying aligned with our mission and values.

Join our mission!

We’re looking for team members who thrive in fast-paced, high-impact environments and love building from the ground up. TRM is remote-first, with an exceptionally talented global team. If you enjoy solving tough problems and seeing your work make a difference for billions of people, we want you here.Don’t worry if your experience doesn’t perfectly match a job description— we value passion, problem-solving, and unique career paths. If you’re excited about TRM’s mission, we want to hear from you.

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