Senior On-Chain Engineer – Incubation (x/f/m)

Kraken is a mission-focused company rooted in crypto values. As a Krakenite, you’ll join us on our mission to accelerate the global adoption of crypto, so that everyone can achieve financial freedom and inclusion. For over a decade, Kraken’s focus on our mission and crypto ethos has attracted many of the most talented crypto experts in the world.

As a fully remote company, we have Krakenites in 60+ countries who speak over 50 languages. Krakenites are industry pioneers who develop premium crypto products for experienced traders, institutions, and newcomers to the space. Kraken is committed to industry-leading security, crypto education, and world-class client support through our products like Kraken Pro, Kraken NFT, and Kraken Futures.

The team

Join our new Incubation team and have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing transformation of the digital assets industry at Kraken. Our team plays a crucial role in identifying problems in the industry and delivering novel solutions.

As a member of the Incubation team, you will have the chance to collaborate with highly skilled Rust Engineers, cryptographers, and on-chain experts from around the world. We are enthusiastic about open source, Layer 2 technologies, zero-knowledge proofs, multi-party computation, and continuously strive to explore the potential of on-chain scaling solutions. Our collaborative work environment allows us to stay ahead in the ever-changing crypto landscape.

The team has recently embarked on exploring how more protocols and decentralized applications can be integrated into Kraken. By joining our team, you will have the opportunity to contribute towards shaping the future of Kraken’s on-chain product strategy. This is a fully remote role.

The Opportunity

• Greenfield opportunity to shape and build the on-chain strategy of a leading CEX
• Design and implementation of on-chain smart contracts and protocols
• Design and implementation of EVM layer 2 solutions
• Freedom to pursue independent research and publish some work under OS license
• Attend conferences and network in the on-chain ecosystem

Skills you should HODL

• Writing reusable, testable, and efficient code
• Proven track record of contributing to open source projects: some of your work at Kraken will be done publicly
• Proven track record as an on-chain developer: you have delivered on-chain products or protocol work with some degree of PMF
• Experience in writing, testing, deploying and managing EVM-compatible secure smart contracts, preferably those that managed to accumulate considerable TVL
• Hands-on knowledge of protocol engineering on EVM-related-chains, especially Ethereum-based L2s: you know what is being talked about on ACD calls, you can rattle off the potential pros and cons of any given EIP from memory, you enjoy forking existing nodes and modifying them to support outside of the box features
• Deep experience interacting with all kinds of on-chain products, and not only those on EVM-based chains: deep protocol knowledge of any non-EVM chain/ecosystem (Bitcoin, Dotsama, Cosmos, Solana, etc.)  is a plus
• Ability to work primarily in Solidity (we are language-agnostic – Rust and Go are nice to have)
• Be passionate about secure, reliable, fast and privacy-focused software
• Experience in creating public-facing technical writing and documentation
• Acting as technical leader, mentoring others in the company to help bring their ideas to PoC stage and beyond.
• A startup mentality and ideally, startup experience
• Pragmatic and solution-oriented, stoic in the face of many obstacles
• Demonstrates a receptive mindset, adept at engaging in constructive dialogue on complex subjects with colleagues, while remaining adaptable and open to alternative perspectives.

Nice to Have

• Experience in maintaining critical infrastructure for large organizations
• Experience interacting with and managing on-chain user communities
• Passionate and knowledgeable about tokenomics and economic incentives designs
• Experience with and/or knowledge of financial derivatives and structured products
• Experience with and/or knowledge of MEV and on-chain arbitrage strategies
• Hands-on knowledge of modern applied cryptography such as ZKP, MPC or FHE

Kraken is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate all Krakenites for their diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions and unique perspectives. We hire strictly based on merit, meaning we seek out the candidates with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills considered the most suitable for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don’t fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you’re passionate or knowledgable about crypto!

As an equal opportunity employer, we don’t tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind. Whether that’s based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state or local laws.