Founding Engineer - EVM
Shadow
At Shadow, we’re building the end-to-end data platform for crypto.
We believe that one day, blockchains will act as a record of all human activity. And everyone – from individuals to institutions – will want the ability to make use of the information enshrined on blockchains in their own ways.
Blockchains are a fundamentally new type of database, yet it’s much too difficult to work with onchain data today. We’re taking a crypto native approach to solve this, starting with a product that allows anyone to inject custom data on any smart contract.
We've raised $9M in seed funding led by Paradigm, with additional investors from Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap, and Flashbots.
We're actively hiring for full-time in-person roles working out of a beautiful office space in Soho New York.
We’re hiring a founding EVM engineer to join our world-class team in NYC.
About the role
In this role you'll be working closely with the CTO to develop, maintain, and improve the node and supporting infrastructure we run at Shadow. You should have a deep understanding of the EVM and have experience hacking on the EVM itself or auxiliary tools like debuggers and tracers.
What you'll do (responsibilities)
We're looking for an experienced IC who wants to:
Build highly performant and reliable node infrastructure. With some other bells and whistles that create magic for our customers.
Expand EVM chain support. You’re already familiar or are excited to dive deep into the nuances of L2s and other EVM chains, and extend our infrastructure across them.
Hack on the EVM. You love the EVM for what it is, but have ideas on how to improve it.
Our tech stack
Typescript and Next.js
Backend infrastructure built in Rust
Kafka, Postgres, Snowflake, and BigTable
Shadow events written in Solidity and Vyper
What we're looking for (qualifications)
You're a senior or staff-level IC that has worked on EVM node infrastructure in a production environment. We’re looking for someone who has done it before and doesn’t need ramp up time.
Strong opinions on what best-in-class tooling looks like for developers on EVM chains.
Curious and quick learning. We don't expect you to have experience in every technology we use, but to learn and be productive quickly. Owning several repos and jumping into all of them doesn't scare you.
Pragmatic attention to detail. We strive for few slips in code, Git hygiene, and clear written communication — all while remaining low-ego and solution oriented.
Good heart. We are a group of friendly ambitious nerds, and don't tolerate jerks.
Why join
Team — we have a high bar; you'll be on a small team of extremely talented individuals.
Impact — work on stuff that actually matters and will grow crypto as a whole.
Ownership — you will have an extreme level of autonomy over your work.
Who you'll be working with
Emily (Co-Founder and CTO) — Previously Paradigm EIR, and Staff Engineer → Engineering Manager at Airbnb, where she built the realtime indexer for user profiling used sitewide and managed a team of 15 engineers. Has been highly active onchain since DeFi summer 2020.
Alvin (Co-Founder and CEO) — Previously Paradigm EIR, and Designer → Staff Product Manager at Airbnb, where he was the first PM on Airbnb Plus and helped take it from a whiteboard idea to a $100M/yr business in 2.5 years. Has been highly active onchain since DeFi Summer 2020.
Emily and Alvin are siblings and have worked together for the past 8 years!
What we offer (compensation & benefits)
Highly competitive salary and equity — we target 90th percentile compensation for both salary and equity. You’ll be expected to act like an owner, because you are one.
Great healthcare — gold-tier company healthcare plans. We cover 99% of medical, dental, vision premiums for employees, and 50% for dependents.
401k — flexible 401k retirement plan with contribution matching.
In-person culture — we work out of a beautiful office in Soho New York with other early-stage crypto teams, and have a culture of coming in 5 days a week as a default.
Hardware setup — we’ll buy whatever you need to be productive.
Work trials
We’re a fan of paid work trials. We believe they’re the best way to learn whether there’s a mutual fit, and equally beneficial for the candidate as the company.
This is not a requirement, as we understand that every individual’s situation is different. We'll discuss details during the process, but work trials are fully paid, and usually last 3-5 days where we have your full time and focus during the period – e.g. you’ve taken PTO at your full-time job, have no other contract work obligations, etc.