Senior Software Engineer - Special Projects

About the role

This position centers on developing a new consumer-facing product that utilizes Solana's market infrastructure. The work involves designing and implementing core systems from the ground up, with a strong emphasis on creating low-latency and highly reliable services that integrate directly with Solana's transaction and block building processes. Key areas of ownership include order routing, execution, real-time market data, and position management, all while maintaining a security-first approach.

The role requires close collaboration with product and infrastructure teams to ensure rapid development and iterative improvements based on user feedback. As an early member of this team, the engineer will contribute significantly to architectural decisions for the new application. Jito Labs operates as a small, profitable company with established products in the Solana ecosystem, providing a context of moving into new product development.

Success in this role means delivering robust, secure, and efficient systems that power the new application. It involves taking ownership of critical infrastructure components and ensuring they operate with high reliability and low latency. The ideal candidate will be able to work autonomously and make impactful architectural contributions, contributing to a product that helps users access financial services on-chain.

The listed salary range for this position is $200,000 to $250,000 annually, with additional above-market total compensation and equity.

Skills that matter here

• Rust: This role prefers Rust for systems programming, leveraging its performance and safety features to build core services.
• C: Experience in C is valuable for this role, demonstrating a strong foundation in systems programming for low-level performance.
• C++: Proficiency in C++ indicates a background in building high-performance, reliable systems, which is critical for this position.
• Go: Experience with Go is relevant for developing efficient and scalable backend services and distributed systems.
• distributed systems: The role requires extensive experience with distributed systems to build resilient and scalable infrastructure for the new product.
• Solana's runtime, transaction lifecycle, and market microstructure: Familiarity with Solana's specific technical details is a strong advantage for interacting directly with its blockchain infrastructure.

Who this role suits

• Someone with at least five years in software engineering, particularly with a focus on distributed systems.
• An individual who prioritizes security in all stages of development, considering attack surfaces and failure modes.
• A self-starter comfortable operating with significant autonomy and capable of navigating situations with incomplete information.
• A builder who enjoys designing and implementing core systems from scratch and making significant architectural contributions.

From the employer

• Design and build core systems for our new product from scratch
• Build low-latency, high-reliability services that interact directly with Solana's transaction and block building pipeline
• Own critical infrastructure: order routing, execution, real-time market data, and position management
• Implement security at every layer, from transaction signing to user data protection
• Work closely with the product and infrastructure teams to ship fast and iterate based on real user feedback
• Make significant architectural decisions as an early member of the team

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, with meaningful time spent on distributed systems
• Strong systems programming skills. Rust preferred, but deep experience in C/C++, Go, or similar is fine
• Track record building reliable, low-latency systems in production
• Security-first mindset. You think about attack surfaces, key management, and failure modes before writing code
• Familiarity with Solana's runtime, transaction lifecycle, and market microstructure (MEV, block building, execution quality) is a strong plus
• Comfortable operating with high autonomy and incomplete information

• Salary based on experience: $200,000 - $250,000 a year
• Above-market total compensation and multiple forms of equity
• 100% employer-paid health benefits
• All-expenses-paid team retreats and conferences
• Weekly meal voucher and other benefits