Overview

Staff Engineer: DeFi Rust – Keyrock

Since our beginnings in 2017, we've grown to be a leading change-maker in the digital asset space, renowned for our partnerships and innovation. Today, we rock with over 180 team members around the world. Our diverse team hails from 42 nationalities, with backgrounds ranging from DeFi natives to PhDs. Predominantly remote, we have hubs in London, Brussels, Singapore and Paris, and host regular online and offline hangouts to keep the crew tight. We are trading on more than 80 exchanges, and working with a wide array of asset issuers. As a well-established market maker, our distinctive expertise led us to expand rapidly. Today, our services span market making, options trading, high-frequency trading, OTC, and DeFi trading desks. We are not just a service provider; we are an initiator and pioneer in adopting the Rust Development language for our algorithmic trading, supporting Web3 startups through our Accelerator Program and contributing to the growth of DeFi, RWA, and NFT protocols.

Mission statement

An experienced Staff Engineer and Rust developer to support the growth of our infrastructure, which is based on an exciting and constantly evolving technology stack. You will collaborate with engineers, data scientists, and architects to plan and develop new features, integrate new liquidity sources, and structure financial systems. As an important member of the engineering department, you will engage in technical discussions with the Architect to contribute with their vision and expertise for iterating the global architecture. An ideal candidate has experience in developing low-latency trading systems, is passionate about algo trading and crypto, DeFi, and is a low-level system thinker. This role may involve integrating with poorly documented APIs from protocols.

Job description

• Supporting the implementation, setup and deployment of trading algorithms. Signing off technical approach for a given use case.
• Assisting the product managers on the planning of the implementation of a technical solution, making trade-offs and technical decisions with a bigger roadmap in mind and within the guidelines of the engineering department.
• Mentoring other engineering members and participating actively in code reviews.
• Reviewing performance metrics and data analysis to recognise weaknesses and find solutions to optimise activities.
• Ensuring that processes are well documented.

Background and experience

• At least 5 years of back-end coding experience (e.g., C++, Rust, Go, or Java).
• Experience with Rust is essential for this role.
• Familiarity or interest in trading.
• Familiarity with financial markets and trading algorithms in order books.
• Outstanding written and verbal presentation skills.

Nice to have (not essential)

• A minimum of 1 year of relevant experience in DeFi, Web3 and/or a DAO.
• Familiarity with AWS.
• Experience with non-EVM chains.

The preference for this role is for the candidate to be based in the Europe time zone in line with the wider team.

Interview Process

1. 1st Stage is a short technical interview with the Hiring Manager.
2. 2nd Stage: Tech Challenge.
3. 3rd Stage: Tech Challenge Debrief.
4. 4th Stage: Final meeting with the wider team.

Offer

Our recruitment philosophy emphasizes self-awareness and powerful communication skills. We seek passionately engaged people who understand their career goals and can contribute with the right skills and ownership. The ideal candidate is a crypto enthusiast who is driven, collaborative, and focused on delivering solid, scalable outcomes.

• Competitive salary package.
• Autonomy in time management with flexible hours and remote work opportunities.
• The freedom to create your own entrepreneurial experience as part of a team pursuing excellence.

We are committed to building a positive and collaborative work environment and hire based on merit and performance. Due to the nature of our business and external requirements, we perform background checks on all potential employees, passing which is a prerequisite to join Keyrock.