As the Protocol Engineering Lead at ZetaChain, you will be responsible for driving the architecture, design, and development of our core blockchain protocol. You will lead a team of talented blockchain engineers, guiding the technical direction of the protocol and ensuring it meets the highest standards of performance, and security. This role requires deep expertise in blockchain systems, and strong leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and optimization of the protocol, ensuring code quality, maintainability, and performance.
• Make key architectural decisions and guide long-term protocol strategy in alignment with the company’s goals.
• Manage and mentor a high-performing team of blockchain engineers, fostering a culture of excellence, ownership, and collaboration.
• Drive technical planning, execution, and delivery of the protocol SDLC including CI testing and mainnet upgrades.

Experience

• 6+ years of software development experience
• 3+ years of blockchain protocol experience, including Cosmos SDK or similar ecosystems
• Prior experience leading and mentoring engineering teams, with a strong sense of ownership
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, consensus algorithms, and performance optimization
• You are not expected to be an expert in all smart contract languages but strong Solidity knowledge is a must.
• Smart contract experience from chains like Solana, SUI, Bitcoin, or TON is a huge plus

Our tech stack

We’re a polyglot team and value engineers who can navigate across boundaries but you are not expected to be an expert in every area. Our core stack includes:

• Smart contracts: Solidity, Rust (Solana), Move (SUI), FunC (TON)
• Protocol: Go (Cosmos SDK, geth, btcsuite)
• CI/Infra: Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions

Location

Hybrid position in San Francisco is preferred but open to excellent candidates remotely in US or EU regions only.

Compensation

Base Salary: $150,000 – $200,000 (San Francisco benchmark)
This range reflects base salaries for roles in the San Francisco market. For candidates in other locations, compensation is adjusted to remain competitive within their local market.

In addition to the base salary, all full-time team members receive an additional 10% to 25% in liquid benefits with upside based on role, experience, and impact. We believe in building together and sharing in the long-term success of the network. Compensation packages are designed to be competitive and aligned with the growth of both the team and the ecosystem.