Tech Jobs: Staff Engineer, Core
About Stellar
Stellar transcends the definition of a mere blockchain. It stands as a decentralized, swift, scalable, and exceptionally sustainable network designed explicitly for financial products and services. This thriving ecosystem also encompasses a non-profit organization driven by a profound mission. Stellar is dedicated to opening up the world’s economic potential through the power of blockchain technology. Crafted with a focus on speed and cost-effectiveness, the Stellar network offers global builders and financial institutions a platform to issue assets and perform real-time currency transfers and conversions, thereby delivering tangible real-world utility. Established in 2014, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) stands firmly behind the continued development and expansion of the Stellar network. Furthermore, the foundation plays a pivotal role in serving the ecosystem of NGOs, corporations, universities, small businesses, governments, and individual entrepreneurs who are actively building on the Stellar network by providing essential tools, funding, and fostering strategic collaborations. Together, Stellar is the place where blockchain seamlessly converges with the real world.
About the Stellar Development Foundation
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a nonprofit organization with a clear-cut focus on collaborating with and supporting change-makers in their quest to establish equitable access to the global financial system through the incredible potential of blockchain technology. SDF extends grants, investments, funding, and various awards to builders and organizations contributing to this noble mission. In addition, SDF dedicates itself to developing resources and essential tooling on the Stellar network, thus unlocking real-world utility. As a nonprofit foundation, SDF prioritizes the well-being of the Stellar network and the broader Stellar ecosystem and remains steadfastly dedicated to its profound mission above all else.
Responsibilities:
- Crafting and implementing essential components of Stellar Core, the foundational software supporting the Stellar Network.
- Designing and developing resilient, scalable, and highly adaptable technologies that empower our network participants and developers.
- Collaborating on the creation of novel architectures and subsystems, working closely with our CTO, the engineering team, and our community of open-source developers.
- Writing clean and maintainable code with a strong focus on analyzing edge cases and future-proofing our solutions.
- Taking ownership of core subsystems within Stellar Core and actively contributing to the achievement of critical product milestones.
- Participating in code review and design alongside the team, while also contributing to the establishment of best practices across the entire SDF engineering department.
- Identifying and optimizing performance bottlenecks to ensure the ongoing scalability of the system.
- Crafting detailed technical feature specifications and protocol (RFC) documents. We place a high emphasis on design, and we encourage everyone to be part of our RFC processes.
As a valued member of our team, you will have the opportunity to tackle a diverse range of challenges focused on the expansion and enhancement of our global network. This encompasses the design and implementation of features aimed at enhancing network performance (peer-to-peer networking and processing capabilities), bolstering decentralization (increasing resilience to node failures and network attacks), and developing effective incentive mechanisms for network participants.
Your role will also involve engaging with formal models and verification (for consensus), conducting simulations to confirm emergent properties, and addressing common scalability issues related to distributed and multi-core systems.
Requirements:
- Your background comprises a minimum of 8 years of software development experience within a team environment.
- You hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or possess equivalent qualifications.
- Your coding skills are exemplary, particularly in modern C++ or Rust, and you have demonstrated your ability in a production setting.
- A strong communicator, you excel in articulating and leading technical discussions, particularly during the design and code review phases.
- You possess a firm grasp of software design patterns and know how to construct components that are both reusable and adaptable, following a modular approach.
- Adept at implementing best practices and utilizing development tools, you exhibit a fervor for staying current with technological advancements.
- You exhibit a keen interest in performance debugging and benchmarking.
- You thrive on confronting novel challenges in an ever-evolving landscape, with many of these issues being addressed for the first time.
- You’re enthusiastic about the prospect of working in a small, growing team, where you’ll enjoy a high degree of autonomy.
- You are an open-minded and empathetic individual who values collaborative and constructive contributions, consistently striving to bring forth the best ideas.
Additional considerations:
- You possess firsthand experience in the design and execution of distributed systems.
- You demonstrate a profound interest in blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies, equipped with a comprehensive understanding of their underlying principles.
As part of our remuneration package for this role, we provide competitive compensation, with a base salary spanning from $240,000 to $280,000. The exact figure will be contingent upon your expertise, skills, experience, and geographical location. Furthermore, we extend lumen-denominated grants, complemented by the subsequent range of benefits and perks:
