Software Engineer, Backend Systems - Crypto Trading

Software Engineer, Backend Systems

Location: San Francisco, CA
Work Arrangement: On-site, five days per week
Employment Type: Full-time
Base Salary: $185,000–$300,000
Equity: Competitive equity - Openings: 2
Experience: 2–4 years of relevant backend software engineering experience
Visa Sponsorship: Not available

About the Opportunity

Our client is an approximately 10-person crypto and fintech startup with more than $15 million in funding. The company is seeking a hands-on Software Engineer to build performance-sensitive backend systems supporting real-time financial workflows.

The ideal candidate brings meaningful production Rust experience, strong asynchronous programming skills, and a genuine interest in trading and financial markets. This role offers broad technical ownership within a small, fast-moving engineering team.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, deploy, and maintain production backend services in Rust.
• Develop asynchronous and concurrent systems using Tokio or comparable Rust-based technologies.
• Build reliable services for real-time, high-throughput, and low-latency workloads.
• Process live data streams and support time-sensitive financial workflows.
• Develop and maintain REST and WebSocket APIs.
• Work with multiple database types, including relational, time-series, and key-value systems.
• Investigate performance bottlenecks and improve latency, throughput, and reliability.
• Apply distributed-systems fundamentals to service design and implementation.
• Collaborate closely with teammates to make technical decisions and deliver production improvements.
• Take hands-on responsibility for debugging, testing, and maintaining the systems you build.

Required Qualifications

• Approximately 2–4 years of relevant backend software engineering experience.
• Meaningful, hands-on experience building or maintaining production systems in Rust.
• Experience with asynchronous programming using Tokio or directly comparable Rust-based systems.
• Experience building real-time, high-throughput backend services.
• Experience with low-latency or trading systems where performance materially affects the product.
• Proficiency with multiple database types.
• Meaningful startup experience.
• Experience in fintech, crypto, trading, high-frequency trading, or blockchain.
• Demonstrable interest in trading and financial markets.
• Meaningful personal systems-engineering projects, particularly in Rust or C.
• Comfort working in a fast-moving, highly collaborative startup environment.
• Ability to work from the New York office five days per week.
• Authorization to work in the United States without current or future employer sponsorship.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at a venture-backed startup.
• Strong knowledge of Tokio, concurrency, and distributed systems.
• Experience with live data processing, REST APIs, and WebSocket APIs.
• Experience across relational, time-series, and key-value databases.
• Public GitHub projects demonstrating systems-engineering depth and technical curiosity.
• C or C++ experience supporting strong systems fundamentals.

Technical Expectations

Production Rust experience is essential; familiarity with Rust or experience in another language does not replace this requirement. Candidates should be prepared to discuss systems they personally built, performance challenges they addressed, and their individual contributions.

The team reviews personal projects and GitHub activity during candidate evaluation. No specific degree or school requirement has been provided.

Work Location

Candidates outside New York may be considered if they are willing to relocate and work on-site five days per week.