Job description
About the Ethereum Foundation
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum and related technologies. Our mission is to do what is best for Ethereum’s long-term success. Our role is to allocate resources to critical projects, to be a valued voice within the Ethereum ecosystem, and to advocate for Ethereum to the outside world.
Background
Protocol is the Ethereum Foundation’s R&D group, with the mission of bringing the world computer to the world. Our research, engineering and delivery teams work at the frontier of multiple domains to execute on Ethereum’s ambitious roadmap without compromising on our guiding principles.
About this Role
The UX Lead at Protocol will collaborate closely with our Protocol Architecture team to ensure Ethereum evolves in ways that directly benefit users. This is not a traditional product design role. Instead, it focuses on user research, strategic UX thinking, and shaping the foundations of protocol-layer decisions before they reach the UI.
This role is foundational: you will not only define and advocate for exceptional user experiences but also infuse user-centric thinking into technical decisions across the organization. Your work will impact millions of current and future Ethereum users.
You’ll be responsible for:
- Establishing and embedding UX best practices within Protocol, ensuring user experience is a first-class consideration in technical design and strategic decisions.
- Conducting deep, user-focused research to identify pain points, opportunities, and interaction patterns across Ethereum’s ecosystem.
- Consulting and partnering with various technical teams within Protocol and the Ethereum ecosystem, leveling up their understanding and execution of user-centered design.
- Driving user-focused conversations, clearly articulating trade-offs, and shaping decisions that impact Ethereum’s global community.
Protocol is a unique environment, and you’ll encounter problems that are highly technical, novel, and challenging. You will thrive here if you’re both strategic and tactical—equally comfortable articulating a vision and rolling up your sleeves to execute it.
Requirements
- 5+ years of UX design experience, ideally with significant exposure to deeply technical domains with Ethereum or crypto products: wallets, apps, infrastructure or protocols.
- Proven ability to conduct rigorous user research, distill insights clearly, and integrate them meaningfully into product development.
- Strong collaborative and communication skills; experience advocating for UX best practices among highly technical teams.
Open Questions and Initiatives
- What are the most urgent user pain points to solve, and the most effective levers to address them?
- How to design, deploy and leverage interoperabilityfeatures and standards, allowing for a seamless crosschain experience?
- How to communicate trust assumptions clearly and actionably, without flattening complexity?
- Is Trust Experience the right way to think about Ethereum’s unique affordances?
- How to expose privacy as a first-class UX component for onchain interactions?
- How to engage with the shift from browser-extension wallets to embedded/in-app wallets?
How we work
Protocol isn’t a traditional workplace: it demands and rewards clarity, rapid execution, and genuine commitment to Ethereum’s mission. Distinct aspects of our work environment include:
- Ethereum, period: the EF is in the privileged position where it only needs to consider what is best for Ethereum, without other constraints. This opens the door for unconventional strategies and bold approaches that wouldn’t be possible if we had to optimize for anything else.
- Public by Default: Most contributions happen in the open, coordinating with stakeholders across the broader Ethereum community. This requires proactive engagement, clear communication, and effective collaboration without direct authority, even (and especially!) when consensus is challenging.
- Agency, Impact & Accountability: You’ll have substantial freedom to define your own approach, experiment, and take ownership over your decisions. But with this autonomy comes clear accountability. Your work will be measured both by its immediate strategic impact, and also by its second-order effects across Ethereum’s ecosystem.
This isn’t a fit for everyone, but for motivated, independent individuals, it’s uniquely empowering.
Contract Details
- This is a full-time role, fully remote. Hours are flexible, but you should generally be available around “Eth o’clock” (14:00 UTC) for synchronous calls.
- Additionally, while this isn’t a strict requirement, you’ll benefit from being able to travel a few times a year to events related to your work, such as devcon, or interop.
- Lastly, anons are welcome to apply and work under a pseudonym, but will need to KYC with the Ethereum Foundation.
