Founding Backend Engineer (Architecture)

About Us

Axiom is using zero knowledge proofs to scale smart contract applications in a new way. Our recent V2 release on mainnet allows smart contracts to compute over the entire history of Ethereum in a fully trustless way. This is critical infrastructure to help blockchain applications scale and will empower developers to build novel decentralized applications with the power of ZK.

We are a small but incredibly strong team backed by the best investors in crypto. We’re looking for exceptional people who are excited to work on challenging and impactful problems in a fast-paced environment. Our office is in NYC and working in person in NY is our strong preference, but we're open to remote candidates as well.

The Role

We are looking for a founding backend engineer to join a startup using zero-knowledge proofs to scale smart contract applications. You will be responsible for building systems to interface between low-level computer systems like assembly code and databases and ZK proofs. This will involve working with ISAs like RISC-V, compiler frameworks like LLVM, and database backends and connecting them with cutting-edge zero-knowledge proof systems. Your work will require designing secure and efficient systems which remain performant and making design choices to enable rapid development without sacrificing security.

We are looking for someone with strong engineering design skills, the ability to work across the stack, and a security mindset. We also value the ability to make pragmatic technology choices which empower our small team without adding too much overhead.

Who you are

• You are fluent in Rust, C++, or a similarly performant backend language. We work primarily in Rust and Typescript, but prior experience is not mandatory.

• You have hands-on experience working with some aspect of computer architecture.

• You are extremely detail oriented and have a security mindset

• You’ve worked on challenging software projects and have an eye for performance 

• You’re a clear communicator and value collaboration

• You have a strong bias towards action 

• You have an extremely strong work ethic 

Bonuses

• You have experience with compiler frameworks like LLVM or MLIR.

• You've worked with aspects of low level computer architecture like RISC-V or programmed FGPAs or other custom hardware.

• You have experience with database backends, including experience with query planning or low level query engines.

• You have experience with low-level details of Ethereum.

Why work with us

• As a founding engineer, you’ll be one of the earliest employees with ownership to make key technical/product decisions

• You’ll be working on groundbreaking tech that has the potential to be a key piece of infrastructure for the crypto industry

• You’ll receive a competitive salary with equity

• You will work with and receive mentorship from an exceptional team

Our Team

Our founders Yi Sun and Jonathan Wang met while studying math at Harvard and have been working on ZK since early 2022. Together, they wrote some of the most performant ZK circuits for elliptic curve cryptography and Ethereum data reads before starting Axiom.

Before Axiom, Yi researched probability and machine learning as a professor at UChicago Statistics and did a math PhD at MIT. He was an advisor for Gauntlet and Scroll and worked at an HFT startup from inception to profitable trading. Jonathan published number theory research in top math journals and did a math PhD at UChicago.

The rest of our small but incredibly strong engineering team includes alums of Applied Intuition, Coinbase, Color, Snap, Neon, and Google. We look forward to working with you!

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