Distributed Systems Engineer

Hiro builds developer tools for Stacks, the network that enables apps and smart contracts on Bitcoin.

Hiro is a core entity within the Stacks Ecosystem. The Stacks ecosystem is a collection of independent entities, developers, and community members working to create a user-owned internet on Bitcoin, the most secure and proven blockchain in the world. Hiro empowers developers with the tools they need to innovate and build on Bitcoin, in ways previously not possible.

Hiro is looking for passionate, mission-aligned engineers to work on blockstack-core: the open-source reference implementation of Stack’s blockchain software. You’ll get to develop truly permission-less peer-to-peer networks that must be resilient in an adversarial setting: changing IPs(e.g. behind a NAT); network partitions; unstable group membership; non innumerable set of peers; actively malicious peers. You’ll also work on a novel consensus algorithm(Proof of Transfer) that is both energy efficient and secure by virtue of anchoring to an existing Proof of Work chain(Bitcoin).

This role is ideal for engineers with expertise in blockchains, distributed systems or compilers, an eye for security in protocol design and a high-bar for code quality.

What you’ll do:

• Contribute to the development, maintenance, and testing of the Stacks blockchain. The Stacks blockchain is under active development, and as part of your role, you will be tasked with designing new features, improving the performance and reliability of the blockchain, and helping ensure that the Stacks blockchain can serve as a reliable, secure, and performant foundation for the entire Stacks ecosystem.
• Implement rigorous and thorough monitoring and testing practices to meet the security and performance requirements of the Stacks blockchain
• Design and implement blockchain supporting tools and utilities(e.g., CLI client, tools for exploring the blockchain, monitoring, benchmarking or debugging tools)
• Collaborate with other teams on new product features that have a dependency on the Stacks blockchain(e.g. developer tooling, UX for transaction signing, 3rd party integrations etc)

What we’re looking for:

• 3+ years of hands on experience in a production environment with one or more of: public blockchains; consensus protocols; large-scale distributed systems; applied cryptography; compilers; any other equivalent / adjacent technology
• Experience working on and designing tests for long-running projects
• Experience testing distributed systems for behaviors in the presence of faults, network partitions, and network delays
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Working knowledge of the limitations and complexities involved in peer-to-peer systems
• Working knowledge of programming language interpreters, compilers, and static analysis

A bonus if you have:

• Experience with designing, implementing, and benchmarking highly performant programs.
• Experience working on a large, complex, distributed system such as a distributed database, cluster controllers, etc.
• Experience working on open-source projects
• Experience collaborating on a distributed team

We’d love to hear from you even if you don’t have experience or interest in every bullet. There’s no perfect candidate and we want to find the right fit, even if it’s different than we imagine. We especially would like to meet underrepresented/underestimated candidates.

About Us

Hiro Systems PBC was founded in 2013 under the name Blockstack PBC and is headquartered in New York City with employees and contractors across the globe. Hiro is funded and backed by more than $75 million from Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Lux Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Naval Ravikant, and many more. More info here.

Company Highlights

• Remote-first team with HQ in New York City
• Public Benefit Corporation on a mission to build a user-owned internet
• Code released as open-source and patents released with patent pledge
• $75M total raised. $23M from first ever SEC qualified token offering in the U.S.
• 8,000 + active developers and enthusiasts in the community
• 400+ apps launched on Stacks
• Work alongside leading PHD experts in computing

Hiro Systems PBC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and deeply cares about building a diverse team. Hiro is committed to building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, national origin, protected veteran status, age, or any other status protected by law.