Job Description for Senior/Staff DeFi Engineer at Ethena Labs - Globally Remote
Who We Are and What We are Doing:
Ethena Labs is actively building and deploying a suite of groundbreaking digital dollar products aiming to upgrade money into the internet era.
Our flagship product, USDe, is a synthetic dollar backed by digital assets, and takes the novel approach of using a delta-neutral hedged basis strategy to maintain its peg. This product scaled from zero to $15b in 18 months.
Expanding on this, iUSDe is designed specifically for traditional financial institutions, incorporating necessary compliance features to enable them to access the crypto-native rewards our protocol generates, in an institutional-friendly manner.
Ethena has also developed USDtb: a fiat backed GENIUS compliant stablecoin in partnership with BlackRock which has scaled to ~$2b.
These products are also offered in a whitelabel stablecoin offering where any application, chain, wallet or exchange can launch their own stablecoin on Ethena's back-end infrastructure.
Through these offerings, Ethena Labs is not just creating new financial products; we are building the foundational infrastructure for a more open, efficient, and interconnected global financial system.
Open job offerings will be focused on two new major product lines coming to market in the next few months.
Join us!!
Location: European or Asian Time Zone
The Role
As a Senior DeFi Engineer, you'll be at the forefront of designing, deploying, and maintaining cutting-edge DeFi infrastructure and products in the realm of stablecoins, staking, liquidity, and cross-chain flows. You'll act as a technical leader in DeFi engineering, bridging protocol development, security, and trading infrastructure to deliver systems that expand Ethena's market impact while safeguarding user and treasury assets.
You'll work closely with our Security Engineering and Trading & Risk Engineering teams to integrate market data, liquidity signals, and execution systems into DeFi flows. Your work will enable safe automation of mint/redeem operations, LP strategies, and governance-controlled vaults while maintaining world-class security, scalability, and reliability.
What You'll Do
- Architect and deliver core DeFi protocols: including staking, stablecoin integrations, and liquidity systems, ensuring deployments are secure, gas-efficient, and aligned with product roadmaps
- Lead cross-chain infrastructure development in bridging, messaging, LayerZero/LZCompose, and paymasters to ensure seamless UX with high reliability across supported chains
- Partner with Security Engineering to design and deliver modern, robust multisig/on-chain monitoring and tooling solutions
- Enforce robust security practices by implementing audits, fuzzing, invariant testing, and incident playbooks with 100% patching of high-severity issues within industry timelines
- Collaborate with Trading & Risk Engineering to integrate market data, liquidity signals, and execution systems into DeFi flows, enabling safe automation of critical operations
- Own end-to-end lifecycle of DeFi products from whitepaper/spec to contract implementation, deployment, monitoring, and upgrades while maintaining 99.9% uptime for critical contracts
- Drive innovation in stablecoin infrastructure by delivering new products in partnership with external stakeholders
- Mentor junior and senior engineers, raising the team's DeFi depth and execution velocity while documenting learnings and establishing reusable frameworks
What We're Looking For
- DeFi Protocol Expertise: Deep knowledge of smart contract patterns, staking, AMMs, stablecoins, bridges, governance, and liquidation mechanics
- EVM Smart Contract Development: Proficiency in Solidity and EVM patterns with experience in advanced tools (Foundry, Tenderly, Slither, Echidna)
- Solana Smart Contract Development: Proficiency in Rust and Solana patterns with experience in advanced tools (Anchor, SPL)
- System Design & Architecture: Ability to design scalable, gas-efficient, and upgradeable DeFi systems that balance modularity with reliability
- Security-First Engineering: Experience anticipating vulnerabilities and applying formal verification, audits, fuzzing, and invariant testing
- Cross-Chain Infrastructure: Practical experience with messaging protocols (LayerZero, Axelar, native bridges), paymasters, and multi-chain state sync
$180,000 - $230,000 a year
Why Ethena Labs?
You'd be joining a group that has well established itself as one of the most successful crypto-native company's of all time, a group with a mission to revolutionise decentralised finance and it's position in global finance.
Work alongside a passionate and innovative team that values collaboration and creativity.
Enjoy a flexible, remote-friendly work environment with established opportunities for personal growth and learning.
If you subscribe to the mission of separating the dollar from the state, then we want to hear from you!
We look forward to receiving your application and will be in touch after having a chance to review.
In the meantime, here are some links to more information about Ethena Labs to help you check us out:
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
This job opportunity is part of Scouthappy's curated collection of remote jobs open to African talent. Apply now to join a global team.
