About this role.
Axiom seeks a Distributed Systems Engineer to build Rust-based rollup nodes and sequencers for zero-knowledge-proof-enabled blockchain products. The role focuses on secure, efficient protocol and systems design while supporting rapid development in a small, high-performing startup team. Candidates need strong Rust, C++, or comparable systems-language expertise, production cloud operations experience, and a security-first mindset. Experience with Ethereum internals, blockchain nodes such as Geth or Reth, and adversarial environments is especially valuable. The company prefers in-person work in New York City but is also open to remote candidates.
Role DNA
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Core skills
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Sample interview questions
I would define threat models and correctness invariants first, then separate transaction intake, ordering, execution, proof coordination, and publication into observable components. I would use durable state, idempotent operations, validation at trust boundaries, rate limiting, and carefully designed failure recovery, backed by load, fault-injection, and security testing.
I start with production-like profiling to identify the true bottleneck, such as serialization, locking, allocation, storage, or network I/O. I then make measured improvements using appropriate data structures, bounded concurrency, batching, async I/O where beneficial, and benchmarks that verify both performance gains and correctness.
I would package reproducible deployments with containers and infrastructure-as-code, use staged rollouts and tested rollback procedures, and maintain redundant critical services. I would instrument service-level indicators such as availability, block-processing lag, error rate, resource saturation, peer health, and data consistency, with actionable alerts and documented incident runbooks.
I prioritize explicit invariants, small reviewable changes, and early threat modeling so that speed does not create hidden security debt. Where tradeoffs are necessary, I document assumptions, ship behind controls or feature flags when possible, and schedule validation through tests, audits, and operational monitoring.
I would assess correctness guarantees, maintenance burden, performance requirements, licensing, integration complexity, security posture, and the team's ability to operate the dependency long term. I would favor proven components when they meet the required invariants, but build targeted custom functionality when existing options introduce unacceptable limitations or risk.
About Us
Axiom is using zero-knowledge proofs to enable new types of verifiable and private software applications, starting with crypto and fintech. We are a small but incredibly strong team backed by the best investors in crypto. We’re looking for exceptional people who are excited to work on challenging and impactful problems in a fast-paced environment. Our office is in NYC and working in person in NY is our strong preference, but we’re open to remote candidates as well.
We recently released OpenVM, a performant and modular zkVM framework built for customization and extensibility. OpenVM allows developers to verify the correct execution of arbitrary computer programs in a flexible and performant way. We are building ZK-enabled products using OpenVM and supporting teams building on OpenVM.
The Role
We are looking for a distributed systems engineer to join a startup using zero-knowledge proofs to scale smart contract applications. You will be responsible for building Rust-based rollup nodes and sequencers to deliver zero-knowledge proof based products on-chain. Your work will require designing secure and efficient systems and making design choices to enable rapid development without sacrificing security.
We are looking for someone with strong engineering design skills, a security mindset, and the ability to design and implement blockchain protocols. We also value the ability to make pragmatic technology choices which empower our small team.
Who you are
You are fluent in Rust, C++, or a similarly performant backend language. We work primarily in Rust.
You have experience deploying and monitoring high uptime applications to production in the cloud using orchestration and containerization (Docker, Terraform, Kubernetes).
You have experience working within a large production codebase.
You are extremely detail oriented and have a security mindset.
You’re a clear communicator and value collaboration.
You have a bias towards action and extremely strong work ethic.
Bonuses
You have experience working with blockchain nodes like Geth, Reth, or similar.
You have experience with low-level details of Ethereum.
You have experience working in an adversarial or security critical environment.
Why work with us
You’ll be working on groundbreaking tech that has the potential to be a key piece of infrastructure for the crypto industry
You’ll receive a competitive salary with equity
You will work with and receive mentorship from an exceptional team
Our Team
Our founders Yi Sun and Jonathan Wang met while studying math at Harvard and have been working on ZK since 2021. Together, they wrote some of the most performant ZK circuits for elliptic curve cryptography and Ethereum data reads before starting Axiom.
Before Axiom, Yi was a professor at UChicago Statistics and did a math PhD at MIT. He was previously an advisor for Gauntlet and worked at an HFT startup from inception to profitable trading. Jonathan published number theory research in top math journals and did a math PhD at UChicago.
The rest of our small but incredibly strong team includes alums of Applied Intuition, Coinbase, Color, Neon, Google, and Perplexity as well as math / CS PhDs and IMO / IPhO / Codeforces winners. We look forward to working with you!
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