# Senior Systems Software Engineer

**Company:** [Unto Labs](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/unto-labs)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $214k – $220k/yr
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** C, C++, Rust, Distributed Systems, Cryptography, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, GitHub Actions, gRPC, Json-Rpc, ETL, NoSQL, High-Performance Computing, Blockchain
**Posted:** 2026-06-29

> Senior Systems Software Engineer building high-performance blockchain infrastructure. Design/implement low-level components in C/C++/Rust for distributed systems, consensus, cryptography, and networking to achieve ultra-low latency and high throughput on commodity hardware. Requires Master's + 10 years experience in systems programming and distributed ledgers.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Design and implement system-level components for blockchain infrastructure using C, C++, and Rust with emphasis on computer systems analysis and implementation.
- Gather requirements for high-throughput, low-latency (≤ 200 ms p95) services; design distributed systems that meet 99.9% availability SLAs.
- Perform benchmarking and performance profiling to enhance execution efficiency.
- Specify, version, and maintain public and internal APIs plus JSON-RPC/gRPC endpoints; document interfaces and generate strongly typed client libraries.
- Collaborate on the development of secure, low-latency networking protocols and cryptographic primitives.
- Build fault-tolerant ETL pipelines that transform on-chain events into query-optimized relational & NoSQL stores; tune indexes for millisecond reads.
- Provision and scale commodity server fleets (on-prem & cloud); automate with Terraform/Kubernetes, monitor health, capacity, and SLOs.
- Migrate legacy computing pipelines to modern CI/CD frameworks.
- Support the design of fault-tolerant systems with advanced debugging, logging, and error recovery functionality.
- Model token-economic incentives, auction fee markets, and validator/operator behaviors; prototype algorithms and run agent-based simulations.
- Leverage generative-AI coding agents, static analyzers, and self-healing runbooks to accelerate delivery and cut MTTR.
- Review performance metrics to refine software components for memory and processor efficiency.
- Profile CPU, I/O, and network paths; execute load-tests; instrument metrics/tracing/logs; drive post-mortems and capacity plans.
- Maintain and manage a performant suite of APIs, SDKs, and developer tools for external developers.
- Integrate cryptographic primitives, secure key management, vulnerability scanning, and incident response playbooks.
- Write RFCs, lead design reviews, mentor junior engineers, and coordinate cross-functional delivery with product, infra, and legal teams.

## Requirements
- Master’s degree (or foreign equivalent) in Economics, Business Economics, Computer Science, or a related field.
- 10 years of experience as a Systems Engineer, Software Engineer, Software Developer, Information Technology Officer, or related occupation.
- Systems programming in C, C++, and Rust.
- Low-level performance optimization and hardware interfacing.
- Distributed systems and threading runtimes.
- CI/CD pipeline design using GitHub Actions and on-prem infrastructure.
- Work with multiple systems including web development platforms, high-performance computing systems, core operating system kernels, developer tools, and systems related to economic applications.
- Develop distributed ledger technologies or crypto economic distributed systems.

## Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with high-frequency trading and scaling developer ecosystems.
- Familiarity with generative-AI coding agents, static analyzers, and self-healing runbooks.

## Compensation and Benefits
- Competitive salary: $213,512 - $220,000 USD.
- Significant equity and upside potential.
- Flexible work environment.
- Unlimited vacation policy.
- Health insurance.
- Hardware and development tool allowance.
- Conference and learning budget.

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