Staff Software Engineer, C++/Rust

As a Staff Software Engineer at the Stellar Development Foundation, you will design, build, and implement changes to Stellar Core, the distributed system that maintains Stellar's ledger and obtains global consensus. You'll work on a wide variety of problems focused on growing and scaling the Stellar blockchain network, including performance optimization, decentralization, and incentive mechanics. You'll engage with formal models, verification, simulation, and scalability challenges in a distributed, multi-core environment.

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, engineering team, and open source community.
• Write clean, maintainable code with an emphasis on edge case analysis and future-proofing.
• Own core subsystems of Stellar Core and help the team reach critical product milestones.
• Collaborate on code review and design, and contribute to best practices for engineering across SDF.
• Investigate and refactor performance bottlenecks to continue scaling the system.
• Author detailed technical feature and protocol (RFC) specifications, actively participating in the RFC process.

What you bring

• 8+ years of experience developing software on a team.
• A BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent field.
• Excellence in writing production code in modern C++ or Rust.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to lead technical discussions 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, development tools, and a passion for technological innovation.
• A passion for performance debugging and benchmarking.
• Enthusiasm for working on a small, growing team with significant autonomy.
• An open, empathetic approach to collaboration and advancing the best ideas.

Nice to have

• Direct experience designing and implementing distributed systems.
• Strong curiosity about blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies, with understanding of their fundamentals.

What we offer

• Base salary of $190,000-$300,000 depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location, plus lumen-denominated grants.
• Competitive health, dental and vision coverage with most plans covered at 100% for the employee and dependents (USA).
• Flexible time off plus 15 company holidays including a company-wide holiday break.
• Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for both non-birthing and birthing parents, and up to 14 weeks of paid pregnancy 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 per 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.
• Hybrid work model.

About the Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization focused on creating equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. SDF supports the continued development and growth of the Stellar network, an open-source platform operating at high scale, and serves a thriving ecosystem of NGOs, corporations, universities, small businesses, governments, and entrepreneurs through tooling, funding, and strategic collaborations.