Lead Software Engineer, Rust Consensus Protocol

**About MakeInfinite Labs**:
**Join us in building the future of AI x Blockchain**:
Join our team at MakeInfinite Labs and be at the forefront of revolutionizing how decentralized technologies and artificial intelligence converge. Embrace the opportunity to innovate, grow, and shape a new era of digital transformation.

**ℹ️About the role**:
We’re looking for a **Lead Software Engineer** to join our team in a **full-time** capacity. This is an **individual contributor**role.

This role is **remote**, with occasional travel required for company offsites or industry events.
- This role is available to those located in the **United States**, and **some LatAm regions**(see job posting for available countries; please ensure resumes are submitted in **English**)

As a** Lead Software Engineer** focused on Rust development within our Consensus Protocol Engineering team, you will be joining highly skilled engineers, cryptographers, and researchers who actively contribute to enhance the Space and Time protocol. You will collaborate with the rest of your team and the Space and Time open source community, to implement and test core on-chain SQL like features or improve the performance of an advanced BFT consensus algorithm. In this critical position, you will not only contribute to the technical aspects but also lead the design, and manage the implementation of your projects while obsessing over our code base, ensuring its excellence and adherence to industry best practices.

**What you'll do**:

- Write production ready Rust code to build an efficient, resilient BFT consensus algorithm.
- Develop supporting tools, performance benchmarks/metrics and tests in Rust and/or other languages.
- Codify best practices for future reuse in the form of accessible, reusable patterns, templates, and code bases to facilitate future growth.
- Work with engineering leadership to define, prioritize, and ensure smooth deployments with other operational components
- Deploy, monitor, and manage basic node operations to ensure the health of the network

**What we're looking for**:

- 8+ years software engineering experience, preferably in areas like distributed systems, consensus, p2p/libp2p, core networking.
- Experience in asynchronous programming with Rust
- Contributions to a public substrate based network
- Deep understanding of blockchain and web3 fundamentals
- Experience with using k8s and docker
- Strong command of the English language, both written and spoken
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to effectively articulate ideas and communicate across teams, in a remote and async environment
- Strong collaboration skills, with the ability to to work effectively in a fast-paced and dynamic environment
- Ability to work independently

**Nice to Haves**:

- Bachelor’s degree in math, computer science, computer engineering, or related technical field. Masters or PhD is a plus.
- Familiarity with libp2p, gossipsub
- Familiarity Byzantine Fault Tolerance protocols.
- Familiarity with cryptographic primitives such as elliptic curves, BLS, key management.
- Familiarity with microservices, gRPC/protobufs in Rust.

**Compensation & Benefits**️**:

- ** Base Salary**: $135,000 to $190,000 USD
- ** Additional Compensation**: Eligible roles may include performance bonuses, equity awards, and other incentives
- ** Benefits**:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance (100% of premiums covered by employer)
- Short-term and long-term disability, accidental death & dismemberment, basic life, and supplemental voluntary insurance
- 401(k) with employer match
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Employee discount programs and awards
- Lunch & Learns
- Flexible personal paid time off and sick time
- Work from anywhere in the United States
- 15 company-paid holidays in 2025 (including a year-end holiday shutdown)
- The final offer will be based on a thoughtful review of your experience, skills, and alignment with both the role and the value we believe you’ll bring to our team.

Compensation and benefits will vary by country and local market standards.
- Salary and benefits will be administered through a third-party Employer of Record (EOR)
- Full details will be provided at the time of offer
- The final offer will be based on a thoughtful review of your experience, skills, and alignment with both the role and the value we believe you’ll bring to our team.

️**Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)**

At MakeInfinite, we are committed to fostering culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at MakeInfinite are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics p