Protocol Engineer

Salary: $190K - $250K Location Type: Remote Employment Type: Full-Time

Position Overview

Caldera is seeking an exceptional Protocol Engineer to push the frontier of blockchain interoperability. You will focus on the on-chain layer of Metalayer, Caldera’s high-performance, stack-agnostic bridge serving over 75 rollups. This role involves architecting and hardening smart contracts for cross-chain value transfer, designing security-critical role and upgrade patterns, and collaborating with audit partners to ensure the security of significant assets. This is an ideal opportunity for an engineer who has shipped high-TVL protocols and enjoys delving into EVM/SVM internals, gas economics, and cross-chain message-passing.

Responsibilities

• Design & Implement Smart Contracts: Architect and implement Solidity and Rust smart contracts for the core Metalayer protocol across EVM, L2s, and SVM.
• On-Chain Security Ownership: Manage on-chain security, including role-based access control, pause/upgrade paths, and high-value asset protections.
• Drive Audits: Lead the specification, coordination, and remediation of findings with top security firms.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Work with relayer, indexer, and frontend teams to define clear, developer-friendly on-chain APIs.
• Tooling Development: Build tooling for on-chain monitoring, alerting, and gas/performance profiling.
• Research & Prototyping: Research and prototype new protocol features, such as fast-finality bridges and ZK-verified proofs, to expand Metalayer’s capabilities.

Requirements

• Experience: 3+ years of engineering experience, including shipping production protocols with significant Total Value Locked (TVL).
• Smart Contract Expertise: Expert-level Solidity and/or Rust skills with a deep understanding of EVM/SVM internals.
• Gas & Economics: Proficient understanding of gas/compute metering on Ethereum, L2s, and Solana, and how off-chain components (relayers, indexers) interact with contracts.
• Security Focus: Comfortable owning end-to-end security, including access control, upgradeability, failure-mode analysis, and incident response.
• Development Practices: Excel at systematic debugging, test-driven development, and writing clean, well-reviewed code.
• Communication: Clear communication skills and enjoyment of partnering with frontend, backend, and product teams.

Bonus Points

• Prior experience building AMMs, bridges, or MEV/intents systems.
• Hands-on work with consensus algorithms (Paxos/Raft, Tendermint, HotStuff, etc.).
• Familiarity with ZK proofs, fast-finality research, or cross-chain messaging standards (e.g., CCIP, IBC).
• Significant open-source contributions to blockchain clients, protocol libraries, or security tools.

About Caldera

Caldera builds infrastructure that empowers ambitious Web3 applications to launch ultra-performant rollups, avoiding congestion on general-purpose chains. Our software powers dynamic, scalable blockchain experiences for millions of users. We are a distributed team with hubs in San Francisco and New York, supporting both in-office and remote work.

We are backed by leading crypto investors including Founders Fund, Dragonfly, and Sequoia. We offer competitive cash and token compensation, along with comprehensive benefits.