As Lead Engineer, Custody Engineering at Bullish (owner of CoinDesk), you own the technical roadmap for the Custody Engineering team's tokenization strategy. You lead a team building the systems that safeguard user assets, architecting secure and compliant infrastructure for the full lifecycle of funds. Your work spans blockchain development, smart contracts, oracles, and full-stack systems, with direct visibility to business impact as you advance tokenization and scale core infrastructure.
What you'll do
- Drive the evolution of the foundational architecture and engineering roadmap, leading the project's scaling and tokenization phases using established industry standards.
- Serve as the technical owner for the full tokenization lifecycle, including asset issuance, controlled transfer, settlement mechanics, and on-chain verification.
- Lead the secure design, implementation, and audit of the smart contracts that hold customer assets, and the backend for workflows interacting with the smart contracts.
- Define and enforce auditable security controls (such as policy engines and governance rules) that meet institutional standards for asset safety and regulatory compliance.
- Act as the primary cross-functional technical interface, translating cryptographic and security requirements into actionable engineering work for engineering, product, and operational compliance teams.
- Mentor a team of engineers and set the standard for code quality, security review, and engineering judgment.
What you bring
- 6+ years of experience architecting and scaling production-grade systems, with a proven ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives and mentor high-performing engineering teams to deliver high-impact solutions.
- Expert-level fluency in secure public chain smart contract development, such as Solidity and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), with command of industry-standard security frameworks and libraries such as OpenZeppelin.
- Deep, authoritative knowledge of token standards (such as ERC-20, ERC-3643, and Token-2022) and advanced wallet and custody architectures (such as ERC-4337 Account Abstraction and Gnosis Safe).
- Strong command of architecting secure off-chain services (such as in TypeScript), APIs, and event indexers.
- Hands-on depth with modern Web3 development and testing frameworks (such as Foundry and Hardhat) and interaction libraries (such as Viem and Ethers.js).
- A paranoid security mindset, with proven expertise preventing and mitigating common smart contract vulnerability patterns (re-entrancy, oracle manipulation, access control flaws), use of static analysis and fuzzing tools, and a track record of leading teams through smart contract audits.
- The ability to communicate protocol logic and security trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders across global teams.
- A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent professional experience).
Nice to have
- Engineering experience within the finance or high-security sector.
- Familiarity with SVM/Solana or Daml/Canton smart contract and application development.
- Familiarity with C++ to interface with broader platform systems.
- Fluency in modern key management paradigms (such as MPC and HSM) and applied cryptography specific to digital assets.
- Familiarity with institutional-grade digital asset custody environments.
About Bullish and CoinDesk
Bullish is a regulated digital assets exchange building an institutional standard for the industry, centred on security and compliance. CoinDesk, acquired by Bullish in November 2023, operates as an independent subsidiary and is the leading media, events, indices and data company for the global crypto economy.