Job description
About Phylax
We want to solve security so that crypto can win. We have started Phylax Systems, a company designed to safeguard crypto, and have raised over $4.5M from world-class investors like Nascent, Figment Capital, RobotVC, and others.
Phylax started in the aftermath of the Nomad hack. We spoke with affected users, DeFi founders, and engineers, uncovering a frightening reality: many can’t sleep for fear of being hacked, and some have even left the space altogether. Our entire industry’s credibility has suffered from these daylight robberies, with billions of dollars lost in hacks.
This experience marked the true beginning of Phylax, and our team is on a mission to make top-tier crypto security absolute and accessible. We believe hack prevention must be proactive and impossible to circumvent.
We are building the Credible Layer, a step-level improvement for on-chain security, by creating an on-chain protocol and off-chain infrastructure that enables protocols to enforce security rules for every transaction that interacts with them. On top of that, we deeply believe that open-security is net-possitive for the space, building a whole platform so that end-users coalesce on the Credible Layer as the focal point for the security of every ecosystem.
We are a team that deeply cares about the space and believes the technology and practices are here to help the industry become trustworthy for everyday people and institutions alike.
We have been collaborating with the developer community and industry for the last years and are excited about making long-lasting contributions together.
The Role
As a Senior Rust Engineer at Phylax Systems, you will work on bleeding-edge infrastructure that safeguards the crypto industry. You will play a crucial role in shipping cutting-edge features that extend the EVM to enable security rules to be checked after every state transition, right at the heart of our infrastructure.
Our ideal candidate has a T-shaped skillset, a wide range of technical breadth, and deep knowledge in a specific area across our stack (EVM, performance, database, optimization, debugging).
We’re looking for engineers who can support us with shipping robust code, shipping performant code, and shipping more code, faster. By joining our team, we offer an exciting opportunity for you to contribute to core open-source crypto infrastructure and the ability to solve novel and complex problems.
Key Responsibilities
Design, drive and own complex features throughout the whole lifecycle with strong focus on performance and benchmarking. Particularly in extending the EVM with security-focussed precompiles or improving its performance with parallel processing optimizations.
Collaborate & communicate effectively across teams.
Emphasis on fast iteration cycles driven by performance benchmarking and robust testing practices.
Ability to context-switch between delivering features, supporting bug fixing, and reviewing work
Share innovative ideas to contribute to the team roadmap and consistently raise the bar for others with impactful contributions.
What we are looking for
Proven track record of shipping & maintaining complex and performant Rust code to production.
A deep understanding of the Rust language and ecosystem.
Deep understanding of the Ethereum ecosystem, particularly EVM and the Execution layer.
Engineers with a strong sense of ownership, a passion to improve existing systems, and the ability to work autonomously and solve problems independently.
A collaborative and self-driven individual with excellent communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively across teams.
Strong background in low-level system programming and relevant optimizations, such as parallel computing architectures, profiling, and memory management
Nice to have
Experience in either of these: MEV infrastructure (e.g, Block Builders), HFT systems, Real-time data processing, database design, Ethereum client development (preferably Reth/Revm).
Knowledge of Blockchain architectures (particularly Ethereum Rollups, Ethereum Mainnet) and their various components (consensus, networking, etc.).
Familiarity with System Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices and observability tools for debugging or optimizing the systems you develop.
Familiarity with Database optimizations, lock-free algorithms, concurrent data structures, and SIMD or other CPU-level optimizations.
Why join us
Be part of the Phylax Founding team.
Work on one of the most challenging topics in web3.
Be the owner of your project and build it from the ground up.
Deeply impactful work for the entire industry.
You’ll join a team that appreciates and embraces shitposting.
What we offer
Flexible PTO
Health Insurance
Major industry conferences and events covered
Remote-first, with a hub in NYC
New MacBook
We accept applications for this role until June 19, 2025
