Architect, Staff Back-End Engineer

Job description

Blockchain is the world’s leading software platform for digital assets. Founded in 2011, we provide the world’s largest and most trusted production blockchain platform, powering more than 75 million wallets. Together with our platform of liquidity and execution services, we share the passion to build an open, accessible and fair financial future, one piece of software at a time.

As a Staff Back-End Engineer on our Cryptocurrency Trading Platform, you will take on a leadership role in shaping the direction of our technology while working closely with the trading team and quantitative analysts (quants). You will collaborate with business stakeholders to design and implement systems that meet real-time trading demands, improve market efficiency, and support advanced trading strategies. You’ll be a technical advocate for excellence and lead by example in fostering a culture of high standards, agility, and innovation within the team. The role is based in London and the team is international.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Design and optimize low-latency trading systems in Rust that power algorithmic trading strategies and support real-time execution in the volatile crypto market.
• Lead the design and implementation of trading algorithms, optimizing liquidity management, price discovery, and slippage reduction in dynamic market conditions.
• Promote best practices in software engineering, advocating for clean, scalable, and maintainable code to ensure that systems are built with both immediate performance and long-term sustainability in mind.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, to quickly adapt the trading platform to new data, market conditions, and business needs.
• Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, ensuring clear alignment between engineering, business teams (trading, quants), and leadership, especially when discussing complex technical solutions or business goals.
• Ensure high availability, reliability, and scalability of trading systems while maintaining a sharp focus on performance and testing.
• Drive technical decision-making and contribute to high-level architecture discussions, ensuring that all solutions align with the company’s goals for scalability, performance, and security.
• Be a technical advocate for excellence, leading efforts to improve development processes, code quality, and overall system performance through best practices and knowledge sharing.
• Prioritize rapid iteration of trading algorithms to ensure maximum profitability, minimal risk, and fast execution, adapting quickly to volatile market conditions.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• Extensive experience in Rust and/or C++, building high-performance, low-latency systems in complex environments such as cryptocurrency trading or financial services.
• Leadership experience with a proven track record of leading by example, advocating for technical excellence, and mentoring engineers to help them grow their skills.
• Strong background in trading (ideally cryptocurrency trading),with experience in market-making, arbitrage strategies, and order execution in fast-moving markets.
• Proven experience iterating quickly on algorithmic strategies, adapting to market dynamics and optimizing performance in real-time.
• You possess an innate curiosity, and thrive on learning new technologies.
• Proficiency in Python for backtesting, scripting, and analysis, along with SQL for managing large-scale data systems.
• Strong focus on performance optimization, identifying bottlenecks, and improving throughput in high-frequency, low-latency real-time systems.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to think critically about complex challenges and drive technical solutions forward.
• Experience with containerization (Docker/Kubernetes) and deploying scalable, high-performance trading systems in cloud environments (AWS).

COMPENSATION & PERKS

• Full-time salary based on experience and meaningful equity in an industry-leading company
• Hybrid model working from home & our office in Central London (SoHo)
• Work from Anywhere Policy - up to 20 days to work remotely
• ClassPass
• Budgets for learning & professional development
• Unlimited vacation policy; work hard and take time when you need it
• Apple equipment
• The opportunity to be a key player and build your career at a rapidly expanding, global technology company in an emerging field
• Flexible work culture

Blockchain is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law. This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, and apprenticeship. Blockchain makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.

You may contact our Data Protection Officer by email at [email protected]. Your personal data will be processed for the purposes of managing Controller’s recruitment related activities, which include setting up and conducting interviews and tests for applicants, evaluating and assessing the results thereto, and as is otherwise needed in the recruitment and hiring processes. Such processing is legally permissible under Art. 6(1)(f) of Regulation (EU) ²⁰¹⁶⁄₆₇₉ (General Data Protection Regulation) as necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Controller, which are the solicitation, evaluation, and selection of applicants for employment.

Your personal data will be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States of America and engaged by Controller to help manage its recruitment and hiring process on Controller’s behalf.  Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, your personal data will be transferred to the United States once you submit it through this site. Because the European Union Commission has determined that United States data privacy laws do not ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data collected from EU data subjects, the transfer will be subject to appropriate additional safeguards under the standard contractual clauses.

Your personal data will be retained by Controller as long as Controller determines it is necessary to evaluate your application for employment.  Under the GDPR, you have the right to request access to your personal data, to request that your personal data be rectified or erased, and to request that processing of your personal data be restricted. You also have the right to data portability. In addition, you may lodge a complaint with an EU supervisory authority.