Senior Software Engineer, C++/Rust

At the Stellar Development Foundation, you'll design, build, and implement changes to Stellar Core, the primary distributed system that maintains Stellar's ledger and obtains global consensus. Since 2014, SDF has supported the growth of the Stellar blockchain network, an open-source platform operating at high scale. You'll work on a wide variety of problems focused on growing and scaling the global network, including features that increase performance, decentralization, and proper incentive mechanics for network participants. You'll engage with formal models and verification, simulation, and typical scalability problems in distributed and multi-core systems.

What you'll do

• Design and build key components of Stellar Core, the backbone software behind the Stellar Network
• Design and develop robust, scalable, and extensible technologies that empower developers and network participants
• Collaborate on new architectures and subsystems, working alongside the CTO, your team of engineers, and the community of open source developers
• Write clean, maintainable code with an emphasis on edge case analysis and future-proofing the work
• Own core subsystems of Stellar Core and help the team hit critical product milestones
• Collaborate with the team on code review and design, and contribute to best practices for all of engineering at SDF
• Investigate and refactor performance bottlenecks in order to continue scaling the system
• Author detailed technical feature and protocol (RFC) specifications, taking design seriously and participating in RFC processes

What you bring

• 4+ years of experience developing software on a team
• A BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent field
• Proven excellence writing code in modern C++ or Rust in a production environment
• Strong communication skills to advocate and lead technical discussions, especially during design and code review
• A solid understanding of software design patterns and how to build reusable, extensible, and modular components
• Knowledge of best practices and development tools, and passion for technological innovation
• A passion for performance debugging and benchmarking
• Enthusiasm about working on a small, growing team where you'll be given significant autonomy
• An open, empathetic approach and a commitment to putting the best ideas forward in a collaborative manner

Nice to have

• Direct experience designing and implementing distributed systems
• Strong curiosity in blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies, and understanding of the fundamentals of these systems

What we offer

• Competitive base salary of $180,000-$280,000 depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location
• Lumen-denominated grants
• Competitive health, dental, and vision coverage with most plans covered at 100% for the employee and dependents
• Flexible time off plus 15 company holidays including a company-wide holiday break
• Generous paid parental leave for all parents, plus paid pregnancy disability leave for birthing parents
• Gym reimbursement of $80 per month
• Life and ADD insurance (up to $50K)
• Short and long term disability
• 401K with 4% match
• Health and Dependent Care FSA Accounts
• Commuter benefits with $250/month employer contribution
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly employer contribution
• Family building benefits through Kindbody
• Wellbeing benefits including One Medical, Rightway, and Headspace
• Learning and development budget of $1,500 per year
• Daily lunch and snacks in office
• Company retreats

About Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation is a non-profit organization supporting the development and growth of the Stellar network, a decentralized, fast, scalable, and sustainable blockchain platform for financial products and services. SDF provides grants, investments, funding, and tooling to builders and organizations worldwide, working to unlock equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology.