Senior Software Engineer, Blockchain Protocols

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Blockchain Protocol team — a group that builds systems to analyze and instrument blockchain peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. The systems you build will surface hidden insights about how blockchain nodes communicate, propagate transactions, and behave under real-world network conditions.

You’ll work across network protocols, distributed systems, and large-scale data ingestion, designing software that collects, analyzes, and transforms node-level data into actionable intelligence.

The impact you’ll have here:

• Operate and scale blockchain nodes across multiple chains (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, BSC) to enable deep network visibility
• Research and instrument blockchain and network protocols to extract proprietary telemetry data.
• Build and maintain distributed data-collection systems and ingestion pipelines (Python, Airflow, GCP).
• Design and optimize message propagation, peer discovery, and re-org detection pipelines.
• Collaborate with researchers and data engineers to turn raw network data into high-impact intelligence for TRM’s products.

What we’re looking for:

• Proven experience in distributed systems, data ingestion, or protocol engineering.
• Strong programming skills in Python and at least one systems language (Rust, C++, or Go).
• Experience working with network protocols (TCP/IP, libp2p, gRPC, RPCs) or operating large-scale data systems.
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure and orchestration tools (GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, Airflow).
• Understanding of network-level behaviors such as message propagation or synchronization.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; clear documentation and succinct communication are very important.
• Ability to work independently, be proactive, prioritize, communicate, and set and meet goals
• Flexibility to coordinate across global time zones and an ability to work independently with minimal oversight
• A passion for solving complex network and protocol challenges at scale, and building systems that are robust, performant, and secure

Bonus Points:

• Experience running or instrumenting blockchain nodes (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.).
• Prior work with network observability or telemetry systems (Kafka, Arrow, gRPC).
• Contributions to open-source networking or blockchain infrastructure projects.

Why TRM Labs:

You’ll sit at the intersection of research, data, and engineering — designing systems that extract insights no public API exposes. Our team operates blockchain nodes at scale, instruments network behavior, and partners with data scientists to turn raw network telemetry into intelligence that helps build a safer financial system.

About TRM's Engineering Levels:

Engineer: Responsible for helping to define project milestones and executing small decision independently with the appropriate tradeoffs between simplicity, readability, and performance. Provides mentorship to junior engineers, and enhances operational excellence through tech debt reduction and knowledge sharing.

Senior Engineer: Successfully designs and documents system improvements and features for an OKR/project from the ground up. Consistently delivers efficient and reusable systems, optimizes team throughput with appropriate tradeoffs, mentors team members, and enhances cross-team collaboration through documentation and knowledge sharing.

Staff Engineer: Drives scoping and execution of one or more OKRs/projects that impact multiple teams. Partners with stakeholders to set the team vision and technical roadmaps for one or more products. Is a role model and mentor to the entire engineering organization. Ensures system health and quality with operational reviews, testing strategies, and monitoring rigor.