Smart Contract Engineer - Category Labs

Category Labs (formerly known as Monad Labs) is a team of systems engineers and researchers on a mission to design and build at the frontier of decentralized technology. We strive to deliver significant improvements over existing blockchain solutions. After raising $225M in series A funding, led by Paradigm, we are growing our team.

We’re the team behind Monad, a high-performance, EVM-compatible Layer 1 whose public mainnet is now live. We write the core software that runs it: a parallel-execution EVM, a custom state database, and a BFT consensus client, all developed in the open.

The Role

Category Labs is looking for a Smart Contract Engineer to join the core engineering team to build at the application layer. The work can range from direct collaboration with external app and infrastructure teams to design and implementation of new primitives enabled by a high-performance EVM client. You will be part of a small, high-functioning team in a fast-paced startup environment.

What You Will Do

• You’ll implement smart contracts that are well suited to the resources and throughput enabled by the Monad client built by Category Labs
• You’ll identify needs in the app developer ecosystem and address them through close collaboration with the core engineering team
• You’ll work directly with external application or infrastructure teams to unblock them with deep understanding of their domain AND the Category Labs client

Who You Are

• You have at least 4 years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years of experience writing smart contracts in Solidity
• You have prior experience in blockchain engineering at a Layer-1, Layer-2, or Infrastructure (Oracle, Bridge, Indexer, RPC Provider, Wallet, or other high-performance app) project
• You are an expert with tools like Foundry and Hardhat and deeply understand security vulnerabilities at the application layer
• You have backend engineering experience in low-level languages such as C, C++, or Rust
• You have built something significant from scratch - preferably with users (the more, the better)
• You are a great communicator who is willing to participate in technical discussions, reviews, and documentation
• You value the following qualities that define our engineering team
  • Ability to DO things. When it comes to problem-solving, we value practicality and common sense.
  • Strong design skills (e.g. higher-level thinking about system design, appropriate abstractions, maintainability)
  • Excellence in whatever you have worked on before
  • Rigorous development mindset

Why Work with Us

• Challenging problems: You’ll work on extremely challenging problems with massive impact. See our Blogs and Publications & Talks for a flavor of the problems we are solving in the real world.
• Huge opportunity: The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) standard is ubiquitous, but existing EVM-compatible chains are very slow. Monad’s core innovations offer developers the best of both worlds (portability and performance) and are a game-changer for mass user adoption in crypto.
• The right team: You’ll be part of a small, exceptional team (engineers and researchers make up 90% of the team).
• Open by default: Our core software is public on GitHub. You’ll build in the open, and your work ships where the whole ecosystem can see it.
• Culture: We’re a lean team working together to achieve very ambitious goals. We are united in our culture of collaboration, low ego, and high-quality output. As an early member of our team, you’ll help to shape our culture.
• Compensation: You’ll receive a competitive salary and equity package.
• Resources and growth: We’re well-capitalized, with backing from leading venture funds like Paradigm, Electric Capital, Greenoaks, Dragonfly, and Coinbase Ventures. We keep a lean team, and this is a rare opportunity to join. You’ll learn a lot and grow as our company scales.

How We Use AI

We’re an AI-native team, and we expect engineers to use coding agents and keep up as the tooling evolves. A few things we believe:

• AI is leverage, not a crutch. Review what it generates with the same scrutiny you’d give a teammate’s PR, and own every line you ship.
• Judgment is what matters, not how long you typed by hand. We won’t ask for “N years of [tool].” The stack turns over every few months, so what matters is that you pick up new tools fast and know where and when they apply.

Salary and Benefits

The base salary range for this role is $180,000 – $250,000. This reflects the minimum and maximum range across US locations. It does not include benefits, token, or equity incentives. The final offer may vary based on factors such as relevant skills, experience, domain expertise, and work location. If you are based outside of the US, we have geographic considerations that may impact your final compensation.

Benefits for all Full-Time Employees:

• Private health insurance options
• Flexible paid time off
• Monthly wellness reimbursement
• Paid parental leave

Benefits for US employees:

• World-class benefits package with 100% paid medical, dental, and vision insurance including 75% coverage for dependents and HSA + FSA options
• 401(k) with company match
• Lunch and dinner stipend (in-office NYC)

Benefits for employees hired through an EOR (outside of the US) will be based on EOR offerings and country-specific requirements.

Category Labs is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants. Applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic data, or other legally protected status.