Smart Contract Engineer

About the role

At Category Labs, the Smart Contract Engineer will play a pivotal role in implementing smart contracts tailored to the Monad client. This position requires collaboration with both internal and external teams to address the needs of the app developer ecosystem, ensuring effective solutions are delivered.

The company is focused on building innovative blockchain solutions and has a strong backing from notable venture funds. As a member of a small, dedicated team, success in this role will be defined by the ability to tackle complex problems and contribute to a culture of high-quality outputs and collaboration.

The salary range for this position is between $180,000 and $250,000, depending on various factors.

Skills that matter here

• Solidity: The role requires extensive experience in writing smart contracts using Solidity.
• Ethereum: Understanding of Ethereum's architecture is crucial for developing effective decentralized solutions.
• Rust: Experience with Rust is necessary for backend engineering tasks.
• Smart Contract: The engineer will focus on implementing and optimizing smart contracts.

Who this role suits

• Someone with a strong background in software engineering and at least three years of smart contract experience.
• A candidate who values practicality and common sense in problem-solving.
• An effective communicator who enjoys participating in technical discussions and documentation.
• A person who thrives in a collaborative, low-ego environment and is excited about shaping team culture.

From the employer

What You Will Do

• You’ll implement smart contracts that are well suited to the resources and throughput enabled by the Monad client built by Category Labs.
• You’ll identify needs in the app developer ecosystem and address them through close collaboration with the core engineering team.
• You’ll work directly with external application or infrastructure teams to unblock them with deep understanding of their domain AND the Category Labs client.

Who You Are

• You have at least 4 years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years of experience writing smart contracts in Solidity.
• You have prior experience in blockchain engineering at a Layer-1, Layer-2, or Infrastructure (Oracle, Bridge, Indexer, RPC Provider, Wallet, or other high-performance app) project.
• You are an expert with tools like Foundry and Hardhat and deeply understand security vulnerabilities at the application layer.
• You have backend engineering experience in low-level languages such as C, C++, or Rust.
• You have built something significant from scratch - preferably with users (the more, the better).
• You are a great communicator who is willing to participate in technical discussions, reviews, and documentation.
• You value the following qualities that define our engineering team: Ability to DO things. When it comes to problem-solving, we value practicality and common sense. Strong design skills (e.g. higher-level thinking about system design, appropriate abstractions, maintainability) Excellence in whatever you have worked on before Rigorous development mindset.

Why Work with Us

• Challenging problems. You’ll work on extremely challenging problems with massive impact. See our Blogs and Papers & Talks for a flavor of the problems we are solving in the real world.
• Huge opportunity. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) standard is ubiquitous, but existing EVM-compatible chains are very slow. Monad’s core innovations offer developers the best of both worlds (portability and performance) and are a game-changer for mass user adoption in crypto.
• The right team. You’ll be part of a small, exceptional team.
• Culture. We’re a lean team working together to achieve very ambitious goals. We are united in our culture of collaboration, low egos, and high-quality outputs. As an early member of our team, you’ll help to shape our culture.
• Compensation. You’ll receive a competitive salary and equity package.
• Resources and growth. We’re well-capitalized, with backing from leading venture funds like Paradigm, Electric Capital, Greenoaks, Dragonfly, and Coinbase Ventures. We keep a lean team, and this is a rare opportunity to join. You’ll learn a lot and grow as our company scales.

Salary and benefits

The target annual salary range for this US-based role is $180,000 – $250,000. This range represents our good-faith estimate at the time of posting and is not a guarantee of compensation. The final offer may vary based on factors including experience, domain expertise, and the candidate’s specific geographic location.

Benefits for US employees include

• World class benefits package (medical/dental/vision).
• Unlimited paid time off.
• 401(k) retirement plan + company match.
• Lunch and dinner stipend (in-office NYC).
• Monthly wellness benefit.
• Paid parental leave.

Benefits for employees hired through an EOR (outside of the US) will be based on EOR offerings and country-specific requirements.