Software Engineer - Protocol

Protocol Engineer (Remote – Europe)

Salary: Negotiable

Some engineers build apps.

Others build the rails that everything else runs on.

Our client, a well-backed, rapidly growing independent research and advisory firm at the forefront of Crypto and MEV, is hiring a Protocol Engineer to operate deep in the stack.

This is where zero-knowledge infrastructure meets financial primitives.

Where design decisions shape incentives.

Where performance and security are non-negotiable.

The Role

You’ll design and build next-generation decentralised systems, specifically order book–based exchange and settlement protocols, operating at the intersection of ZK and high-performance blockchain infrastructure.

This is not surface-level smart contract work.

This is protocol logic, cryptoeconomic modelling, and production-grade engineering.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Designing and implementing order book-based exchange and settlement systems
• Building zero-knowledge infrastructure using zkVMs (Succinct SP1, RISC Zero)
• Writing high-performance Rust across protocol and infrastructure components
• Designing incentive mechanisms and modelling adversarial behaviour
• Developing Solidity interfaces between on-chain and off-chain systems
• Contributing to security audits and formal protocol reviews
• Collaborating closely with research, engineering and product teams

What They’re Looking For

You’ve worked on real financial systems.

You understand that adversaries are intelligent and incentives matter.

Core requirements:

• Strong Rust expertise
• Deep understanding of DeFi / financial primitives
• Experience with ZK systems (SP1, RISC Zero or similar)
• Cryptoeconomic intuition
• Solidity proficiency
• Enterprise-grade engineering mindset

You think in terms of attack surfaces, economic incentives, and system constraints, not just features.

Bonus Points

• zk circuit development (Halo2, Plonky3)
• Formal verification or fuzz testing
• Open-source contributions
• CLOB / matching engine experience
• CeFi or DeFi trading background

Why This Role?

• Remote anywhere in Europe
• Deep protocol-level ownership
• High-calibre research-driven environment
• Backed and scaling
• Real impact on next-gen decentralised infrastructure

If you enjoy working where performance, mathematics and market structure collide, and you want to build systems that actually hold up under pressure, this is one worth exploring.

Certus Recruitment Group is a well-established and experienced specialist consultancy providing GTM and Technical recruitment services. We serve the technology sector across the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia.