Senior Backend Engineer (Generalist)

Senior Backend Engineer (Generalist) New York City | Full-Time Up to $275K base + equity + annual trading profit-sharing bonus We’re working with a profitable, venture-backed technology company in New York City that is looking to hire a Senior Backend Engineer (Generalist). The company builds differentiated products and infrastructure in decentralized finance, including a leading order-book spot exchange on the Solana blockchain and highly active on-chain market-making infrastructure. This is a senior individual contributor opportunity for an engineer who enjoys solving complex systems problems, designing high-performance infrastructure, and taking ownership of technically challenging projects from architecture through production. What You’ll Be Doing Build and maintain core backend infrastructure and systems across the platformDesign and implement high-performance, reliable, and scalable production systemsOwn technical initiatives from system design and architecture through launch and ongoing reliabilityLead complex engineering projects independently and collaborate closely with engineering leadershipDesign systems with a strong focus on performance, correctness, reliability, and scalabilityWork on technically challenging backend and infrastructure problems in a fast-paced startup environmentContribute to system architecture and make thoughtful engineering trade-offs around performance, memory, reliability, and maintainabilityDebug and improve production systems and identify opportunities for performance optimisationAdapt quickly to changing requirements and rapid product development cyclesCollaborate with other engineers to establish strong engineering practices and maintain high-quality production systemsContribute across different areas of the technology stack as required, operating as a strong systems generalist What We’re Looking For 7+ years of professional software engineering experience building and maintaining production-grade systemsSenior-to-Staff-level engineering experience with a demonstrated ability to lead complex projects independentlyExceptional computer science fundamentals and system design skillsStrong experience designing, building, and operating production backend or infrastructure systemsStrong programming experience in one or more of Rust, C++, C, Go, Python, or TypeScriptStrong understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, performance, and reliabilityDemonstrated ownership of systems from architecture through production and ongoing operationProven career progression through increasing responsibility, technical scope, or engineering seniorityStable career history with consistent tenure and evidence of sustained impactStrong problem-solving skills and ability to reason through complex technical trade-offsComfortable working independently in a fast-moving startup environment Nice to Have Experience with C, C++, or Rust and low-level systems programmingExperience building systems involving compilers, databases, networking, distributed systems, or high-performance infrastructureExperience with low-latency or performance-critical systemsExperience working with Rust and making explicit memory-versus-performance trade-offsExperience in HFT, quantitative trading, crypto, blockchain infrastructure, or other performance-critical environmentsPrevious experience at a high-bar technology company such as Google, Meta, Stripe, Cloudflare, Databricks, or similarPrevious experience at a leading trading or quantitative firm such as Jane Street, Citadel, Two Sigma, HRT, IMC, DRW, Jump Trading, Tower Research, or similarDegree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or Physics from a strong universityExperience working at a high-growth startup with a strong engineering cultureGenuine interest in crypto, decentralized finance, blockchain infrastructure, or financial technologyExperience building generalist backend systems rather than focusing exclusively on a single protocol or specialized domain If you’re a Senior or Staff-level Backend Engineer with strong systems fundamentals, a track record of owning complex production infrastructure, and an interest in working on technically challenging problems, we’d be interested in hearing from you.