Interested in working on cutting-edge blockchain technology and creating equitable access to the global financial system? Since 2014, the mission-driven team at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has helped fuel the tremendous growth of the Stellar blockchain network, an open-source platform that operates at high-scale today. Developers and companies around the world build on it, and the SDF team is expanding to support the rapidly growing and changing Stellar ecosystem.
About the Project & Team:
At the SDF, a small team of roughly 8 engineers is incubating a novel distributed systems prototype. Not a blockchain as you know it, something new. This is a rare opportunity for a zero-to-one build where much of the infrastructure and tooling does not exist yet. You will be building it.
To be clear: this is not a maintenance role for our existing network, nor is it an academic research project. We are actively building a high-performance platform designed to handle real value.
We operate as a fast-moving, highly technical team with no layers of management. You will work directly with the protocol architect and core systems engineers to take this completely greenfield project to production. If you thrive on the urgency of a new launch and want the agility of an early-stage startup with the stability of SDF, this is the place to be.
About the Role:
We need a Backend/Systems Engineer who owns the critical layer between our core infrastructure and the outside world. The public API, indexing, data pipelines, and everything that makes the system usable by developers and partners.
Today, nobody owns this layer end-to-end. Pieces exist, but the JSON-RPC endpoint, transaction status tracking, analytics pipelines, and data services are a greenfield waiting for an owner. This role benefits enormously from someone who has already been through a complex infrastructure launch (like a testnet or mainnet). You know what breaks, what gets skipped and regretted later, and what "production-grade" actually means for infrastructure that handles real value.
What the First Few Months Look Like:
- Month 1: Understand the system architecture end-to-end. Get the full stack running locally. Own the JSON-RPC spec and start building.
- Month 2-3: Working RPC endpoint. Submit a transaction, query its status, check a balance. Indexer serving the block explorer. Transaction lifecycle fully instrumented.
- Beyond: Data pipelines, partner integrations, API hardening, load testing. Bake in the production readiness that comes from having done this before.
In this role, you will:
- Public API Layer: Design and build the JSON-RPC endpoints that external tools, SDKs, and wallets use to communicate with the core network (transaction submission, status queries, account state).
- Transaction Lifecycle: Own the full path from client to consensus and back. Status tracking, error reporting, and timeout handling.
- Indexer & Query Backend: Build the data backend that powers the block explorer, partner integrations, and historical state queries.
- Data & Observability: Build out analytics pipelines (e.g., BigQuery population) and implement robust metrics and event logging using tools like Prometheus, Clickhouse, and Sentry.
- Cross-Functional Impact: Work across service boundaries, getting comfortable reading code in components you don't own to understand how they behave.
You have:
- Strong systems or backend programming experience in Rust, C++ or both (our codebase uses both).
- Proven track record of designing and building robust RPC/API services that handle real-world, high-scale traffic.
- Deep understanding of database architecture, indexing, and query patterns.
- You are a builder who takes ownership of production infrastructure, not just prototypes.
Bonus Points if (optional):
- Prior experience building or operating blockchain infrastructure (nodes, RPC layers, indexers) in production.
- Experience with a testnet or mainnet launch.
We offer competitive pay with a base salary range for this position of $140,000 - $210,000 depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, we offer lumen-denominated grants along with the following perks and benefits:
USA Benefits/Perks:
- Competitive health, dental & vision coverage with most plans covered at 100% for the employee + any dependents
- Flexible time off + 15 company holidays including a company-wide holiday break
- Generous paid parental leave for all parents, plus paid pregnancy disability leave for birthing parents
- Gym reimbursement ($80 per month)
- Life & ADD (up to $50K)
- Short & Long term disability
- 401K with 4% match
- Health & Dependent Care FSA Accounts
- Commuter benefits with $250/month employer contribution
- Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly employer contribution
- Family building benefits through Kindbody
- Wellbeing benefits (One Medical, Rightway, Headspace)
- L&D budget of $1,500/year
- Daily lunch and snacks in office
- Company retreats
About Stellar
Stellar is more than a blockchain. Powered by a decentralized, fast, scalable, and uniquely sustainable network made for financial products and services and a thriving and passionate ecosystem that includes a non-profit organization driven by a mission, Stellar is paving the path to unlock the world’s economic potential through blockchain technology. Built with speed and low costs in mind, the Stellar network provides builders and financial institutions worldwide a platform to issue assets, and to send and convert currencies in real time creating real world utility. Founded in 2014, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) supports the continued development and growth of the Stellar network and also serves the ecosystem of NGOs, corporations, universities, small businesses, governments, and solo entrepreneurs building on the Stellar network through tooling, funding and strategic collaborations. Together, Stellar is where blockchain meets the real world.
About the Stellar Development Foundation
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization focused on working with and supporting change-makers to create equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. SDF provides grants, investments, funding, and other awards to builders and organizations. SDF also develops resources and tooling on the Stellar network to help unlock real world utility. As a nonprofit foundation, SDF puts the health of the Stellar network and the Stellar ecosystem and its mission above all else.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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SDF is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. SDF does not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, or any other basis protected by applicable local, state or federal law.
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