Protocol Engineer, Smart Contracts & Oracle Data

As a Protocol Engineer at Chronicle, you will work on decentralized oracle infrastructure that secures more than $15 billion in collateral across major chains. You join an experienced engineering team to own smart contracts, EVM deployments, protocol analysis, and the data models that turn protocol state into reliable oracle values. This role blends on-chain engineering with DeFi protocol research and production support. Smart contracts are central, but you will also engage with chain research, audits, protocol analysis, off-chain data flows, and operational tooling.

What you'll do

• Write, test, deploy, configure and maintain EVM smart contracts for Chronicle oracle systems
• Support deployments and upgrades across EVM chains and L2 environments
• Review smart contract changes for correctness, security, maintainability and operational impact
• Support audit preparation, audit response, remediation and post-deployment checks
• Research new chains, L2s, hard forks, EIPs and EVM changes
• Build proof-of-concepts for new on-chain components and help move successful designs toward production
• Optimize for safety, readability and gas efficiency, in that order
• Document contract behavior, assumptions, deployment steps and operational risks
• Analyze DeFi protocols, vaults, pools, lending markets, staking systems, collateral models and token accounting to understand how protocol mechanics affect oracle correctness
• Translate protocol behavior into data requirements, assumptions and calculation logic
• Identify edge cases and failure modes before they become production issues
• Support methodology design for Proof of Asset, reserves, balances, NAV, AUM and reconciliation use cases
• Help keep oracle methodology clear, reviewable and maintainable
• Work with Go-based services, Python tooling, deployment scripts and operational workflows where needed
• Support data model implementation and source/origin integrations for oracle feeds
• Help debug issues across contracts, APIs, data sources, transformation logic and oracle outputs
• Support deployment registers, configuration tracking and production readiness checks
• Work with WASM-based or modular execution environments where relevant
• Help improve traceability between protocol research, implementation, deployment and production behavior
• Apply a strong security mindset to smart contracts, cryptographic assumptions, data models and production systems
• Use applied cryptography concepts in practical engineering work, including signatures, hashes, key management and common attack scenarios
• Think about how systems fail, not only how they work
• Support internal reviews, audit evidence, customer security reviews and institutional due diligence when needed
• Make assumptions explicit before production use
• Write clear technical documentation and keep it current

What you bring

• Strong practical experience with Solidity and EVM smart contracts
• Good understanding of EVM internals, including storage, gas, calldata, events and transaction execution
• Experience with Foundry or comparable smart contract tooling
• Strong CS fundamentals
• Good applied cryptography fundamentals: you understand signatures, hashing, key exchange, key management and common attack patterns at a practical level
• Security-focused mindset and interest in smart contract review
• Good understanding of DeFi mechanics, including pools, vaults, lending, staking, collateral and token accounting
• Ability to reason from protocol mechanics to data requirements and calculation logic
• Practical backend literacy, preferably with Go, Python, Rust or similar tooling
• Ability to work independently, ask good questions early and deliver within agreed timelines
• Clear written English and strong documentation habits

Nice to have

• Contributions to production smart contracts
• Experience auditing or reviewing EVM contracts, including competitive audits or public security work
• Familiarity with Solidity libraries such as OpenZeppelin, Solmate or Solady
• Understanding of lower-level EVM concepts and ability to reason about gas, storage layout, calldata, bytecode-level behavior and contract optimization when needed
• Knowledge of current EVM topics such as L2 fragmentation, blobs, account abstraction, precompiles and recent hard forks
• Experience with oracle systems, DeFi integrations, Proof of Asset systems, reserves reporting or tokenized asset data flows
• Experience with Go services, Python tooling, WASM runtimes or modular execution environments
• Work with deployment automation, deployment registers or production configuration tracking
• Experience with Solana or other non-EVM ecosystems
• Ability to move at startup speed without cutting corners on production safety and security

What we offer

• Competitive compensation package
• Equity participation
• Flexible payment options, including USD, EUR and USDC
• 6 weeks vacation
• Remote-first environment with flexible working schedule
• Annual company offsites

About Chronicle

Chronicle builds decentralized oracle infrastructure that delivers verifiable data to DeFi and tokenized asset applications. Starting in 2017 as the oracle for MakerDAO (now Sky), Chronicle's oracles today secure more than $15 billion in collateral across major chains. The work spans DeFi, tokenized assets, institutional oracle infrastructure, and Proof of Asset systems.

Location: This is a remote-first role. You should be based in, or able to reliably work with, Central European working hours, with strong overlap with CET/CEST business hours expected.