About D3:

D3 is building the world’s first purpose-built blockchain for DomainFi—bringing domain tokenization and DeFi primitives to a massive, rapidly growing $350B+ real-world asset class. We’re revolutionizing how existing and future domain names are owned, traded, and leveraged in the digital economy.

Our elite team is stacked with industry veterans who have spent the last three decades shaping the internet, from pioneering domain name monetization to architecting key internet protocols to launching and running major TLDs like .xyz, .inc, .tv, and .link. With a proven track record of innovation and success, we’re now redefining what’s possible in the domain space.

We recently closed a $25M Series A led by Paradigm - one of the best investors in the industry. This will help fuel our mission to bring domains fully on-chain and unlock new financial possibilities for one of the internet’s most valuable asset classes.

We’re based in Los Angeles, with team members all over the world. We’re looking for driven, talented builders to help build a trillion-dollar DomainFi economy. Join us!

Job Overview:

This is a hybrid role in San Francisco or Los Angeles that offers extraordinary creative freedom and ownership in revolutionizing how domains become financialized assets. As a Principal Backend Engineer role, you will drive the design of scalable, reliable, and secure backend solutions that power our user-facing applications, including our Web2/Web3-compatible Registrar. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in event-driven architectures and a proven track record of building highly scalable, fault-tolerant distributed systems.

Key Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with the product team to understand requirements and translate them into technical specifications and features.
• Design, implement, and maintain backend services to support the development of new features for our ICANN-accredited Registrar platform.
• Design and implement backend services to support the integration of the D3 Protocol for tokenizing domains onto various blockchains.
• Develop backend features to support Web2/Web3 domain marketplaces, enabling users to buy, sell, and trade domains seamlessly.
• Build robust systems for payment processing, integrating both fiat and cryptocurrency payment gateways.
• Ensure code quality through code reviews, testing, and debugging.
• Maintain and optimize the performance of existing codebase and address any bugs or issues that arise.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest technologies, frameworks, and best practices in web development.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience designing, developing, and deploying highly scalable, distributed backend systems in production environments.
• Expertise in building and maintaining event-driven architectures and asynchronous processing using tools like Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent messaging systems.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field. Relevant certifications and additional coursework are a plus.
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in backend development using Node.js and MySQL/Postgres.
• Basic understanding of blockchain architecture and the ability to interact with smart contracts using tools like Web3.js, Ethers.js, or similar libraries.
• Familiarity with Git version control and Agile methodologies for collaborative development.
• Strong problem-solving skills, adaptability, and a self-motivated attitude, with a willingness to learn new technologies in a fast-paced startup environment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively both independently and within cross-functional teams to achieve business goals.

Nice to haves:

• Familiarity with Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) used in domain systems
• Familiarity with NestJS and GraphQL.
• DevOps experience with Kubernetes, Digital Ocean, Google Cloud, AWS, and Linux environments.

Why D3, Why Now?

Ground-Floor Growth, Learning, and Impact: D3 is your chance to dive headfirst into an ultra-early-stage company where every move you make truly matters. You’ll have the opportunity to sharpen your skills, expand your expertise, and shape the foundation of something groundbreaking. Almost everything we’re building today at D3 is “zero-to-one,” meaning you’ll be among the first to craft, refine, and launch key initiatives that define our future success.

Strong, Proven Leadership: At D3, you’ll work alongside industry visionaries who have been there, done that, and are ready to do it again—only bigger. Our leadership team brings veteran industry experience, sharp insights, and a relentless drive to do big things across every function at D3. You’ll gain invaluable mentorship, develop a high-impact mindset, and be challenged to grow in ways you never imagined.

Unique Market Positioning – We’re pioneering at the intersection of internet infrastructure, real-world assets, and blockchain communities, creating solutions that redefine what’s possible in Web3. If you want to push boundaries, solve complex problems, and be part of a team that’s shaping the future of the Internet, D3 is the place to do it.