Solana Foundation

Solana Program Engineer

International Falls, Minnesota, United States

Not SpecifiedCompensation
Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, DeFiIndustries

About Us

The Solana Foundation is a non-profit based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the adoption, decentralization, and security of the Solana network. Solana is a high-performance blockchain that delivers a fast and friendly user experience without sacrificing security. The Solana Foundation aims to realize a world where individuals own their data, use permissionless networks, and transfer information and value freely around the world. We are looking for talented people who are willing to jump right in and use their expertise to help the ecosystem build.

What We Do

The Foundation collaborates with both internal contributors and external ecosystem teams to solve key technical challenges and accelerate the development of core infrastructure, developer tooling, and open-source standards. This includes everything from on-chain protocols to growth tooling, smart contract frameworks, and new developer experiences. We work closely with many of the most ambitious teams in crypto, including those building next-generation DeFi, payments, gaming, DePIN, and Real-World Asset platforms.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for talented Solana Program Engineers, with a strong emphasis on developers who have built or want to build cutting-edge DeFi protocols on Solana.

This is an open application to express your interest in working on one of several high-impact teams across the Solana ecosystem. Depending on your background and interests, we may connect you with projects building:

Advanced DeFi Protocols

  • Central Limit Order Books (CLOBs)
  • On-chain AMMs and hybrid liquidity models
  • Lending markets, margin trading, and perps
  • Bonding curves and structured products
  • Oracle integrations and liquidation engines
  • Governance, fee sharing, and staking mechanisms

Core Infrastructure & Tooling

  • Smart contract wallets and programmable access
  • Gasless relayers and session keys
  • Indexers and custom RPCs
  • Anchor / Pinocchio contributions

On-chain Applications & Middleware

  • Token launch frameworks and fair distribution tooling
  • Real-world asset registries and payment rails
  • DePIN coordination systems

Selected candidates will be matched with ecosystem teams (and in some cases, the Foundation’s internal contributors) based on your skills, interests, and availability. Roles vary from full-time to grant-based, depending on the team.

You’ll Be Great at This If You…

  • Build high-performance production-grade Solana programs in Rust (Anchor or Native)
  • Are passionate about DeFi and familiar with on-chain mechanics
  • Love taking ideas from 0→1 and iterating quickly with real users
  • Can reason about technical trade-offs and system design under constraints
  • Enjoy contributing to open source and improving developer tools
  • Thrive in startup-like environments: fast-paced, independent, and impact-driven
  • Are looking for entrepreneurial, founding opportunities with the smartest people and skin in the game early on.

Desired Background

  • 2+ years of experience building and shipping Solana programs
  • Strong familiarity with Solana’s runtime (SVM), SPL tokens, PDAs, and Anchor
  • Hands-on experience building or contributing to DeFi protocols
  • Understanding of state compression, account metering, and program optimization

Bonus: Familiarity with Solana-native DeFi protocols like OpenBook, Jupiter, MarginFi, Orca, or Meteora.

Get Started

Ready to build the next generation of DeFi? If you’re a Rust engineer excited to work on the bleeding edge of Solana — whether you’ve already deployed programs or are looking to level up — we want to hear from you.

Submit your info and we’ll reach out as opportunities arise across the Solana ecosystem.

Location Type: Remote Employment Type: FullTime

Skills

Solana
DeFi
smart contracts
CLOBs
AMMs
liquidity models
lending markets
margin trading
perps
bonding curves
oracle integrations
liquidation engines
governance
staking
smart contract wallets
gasless relayers
session keys
indexers
custom RPCs
Anchor
Pinocchio

Solana Foundation

Blockchain platform for decentralized applications

About Solana Foundation

Solana is a blockchain platform that allows for the development of fast and secure decentralized applications (dApps) and cryptocurrencies. It can process thousands of transactions per second, making it appealing for developers and traders in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Revenue is generated through transaction fees and staking rewards, with validators earning SOL tokens for securing the network. The Solana Foundation supports the ecosystem by providing grants and resources to promote decentralization and application development.

None, SwitzerlandHeadquarters
2018Year Founded
$339.8MTotal Funding
SEEDCompany Stage
Fintech, Crypto & Web3Industries
201-500Employees

Risks

Stablecoin adoption may reduce demand for Solana's native SOL tokens.
Regulatory scrutiny on stablecoins could impact Solana's blockchain development focus.
Geopolitical tensions from crypto use in sanctioned regions may affect Solana's operations.

Differentiation

Solana processes thousands of transactions per second, offering unmatched speed and efficiency.
The network's security is bolstered by thousands of independent validating nodes.
Solana's Delegation Program incentivizes high-quality operations among validators.

Upsides

Pro-crypto U.S. administration may enhance Solana's growth in the American market.
Solana's investment in RD Technologies could expand its ecosystem in Hong Kong.
Stablecoin adoption for cross-border payments creates new opportunities for Solana's blockchain solutions.

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