Founding Engineer – EVM

At Shadow, we’re building the end-to-end data platform for crypto.

Blockchain networks are the next evolution of the Internet, yet it’s much too difficult to work with onchain data today. We’re taking a crypto-native approach to reimagine blockchain data infrastructure from the ground up, starting with a product that allows anyone to extract custom data from any smart contract.

We've raised $9M in seed funding led by Paradigm, with additional angels from Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap, and Flashbots.

We're a small team who primarily works out of a beautiful office space in NYC.

We’re hiring a founding EVM engineer to join our world-class team.

About the role

In this role you'll be working closely with the CTO to develop, maintain, and improve the node and supporting infrastructure we run at Shadow. You should have a deep understanding of the EVM and have experience hacking on the EVM itself or auxiliary tools like debuggers and tracers.

What you'll do (responsibilities)

We're looking for an experienced IC who wants to:

Build highly performant and reliable node infrastructure. With some other bells and whistles that create magic for our customers.

Expand EVM chain support. You’re already familiar or are excited to dive deep into the nuances of L2s and other EVM chains, and extend our infrastructure across them.

Hack on the EVM. You love the EVM for what it is, but have ideas on how to improve it.

Our tech stack

• Backend infrastructure built in Rust

• Kubernetes on GCP

• Kafka, BigTable, Postgres, Snowflake/BigQuery

• Typescript and Next.js

• Solidity and Vyper

What we're looking for (qualifications)

You're an ambitious senior or staff-level IC that has experience working on EVM node infrastructure and/or tools in a production environment.

Strong opinions on what best-in-class tooling looks like for developers on EVM chains.

Curious and quick learning. We don't expect you to have experience in every technology we use, but to learn and be productive quickly. Owning several services and jumping into all of them doesn't scare you. We value people who can quickly obtain a deep technical understanding of new domains.

Pragmatic attention to detail. You hold your work to a high standard. You strive for few slips in code, clean Git hygiene, and clear written communication — all while remaining low-ego and solution oriented.

Good heart. We are a group of friendly ambitious nerds who are effortlessly kind to one another, and we don't tolerate jerks.

Why join

Team — we have a high bar; you'll be on a small team of extremely talented individuals.

Impact — work on stuff that actually matters and will grow crypto as a whole.

Ownership — you will have an extreme level of autonomy over your work.

Who you'll be working with

Emily (Co-Founder and CTO) — Previously Paradigm EIR, and Staff Engineer → Engineering Manager at Airbnb, where she built the realtime indexer for user profiling used sitewide and managed a team of 15 engineers. Has been highly active onchain since DeFi summer 2020.

Alvin (Co-Founder and CEO) — Previously Paradigm EIR, and Designer → Staff Product Manager at Airbnb, where he was the first PM on Airbnb Plus and helped take it from a whiteboard idea to a $100M/yr business in 2.5 years. Has been highly active onchain since DeFi Summer 2020.

Emily and Alvin are siblings and have worked together for the past 8 years!

What we offer (compensation & benefits)

Highly competitive salary and equity — we target 90th percentile compensation for both salary and equity. You’ll be expected to act like an owner, because you are one.

Great healthcare — gold-tier company healthcare plans. We cover 99% of medical, dental, vision premiums for employees, and 50% for dependents.

401k — flexible 401k retirement plan with contribution matching.

Hardware setup — we’ll buy whatever you need to be productive.