Senior Staff DeFi Engineer

Senior/Staff DeFi Engineer

Globally Remote – Ethena Labs – Engineering.

Location

European or Asian Time Zone.

Role

As a Senior DeFi Engineer, you will design, deploy, and maintain cutting‑edge DeFi infrastructure and products in stablecoins, staking, liquidity, and cross‑chain flows. You will act as a technical leader, bridging protocol development, security, and trading infrastructure to expand Ethena's market impact while safeguarding user and treasury assets.

You will work closely with Security Engineering and Trading & Risk Engineering teams to integrate market data, liquidity signals, and execution systems into DeFi flows, enabling 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 (Foundry, Tenderly, Slither, Echidna).
• 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.

Salary

$180,000 - $230,000 a year

Benefits

Remote‑friendly work environment with flexible hours, opportunities for growth and learning, and a collaborative team that values creativity. At Ethena Labs, we empower individuals and institutions with greater control over their assets in a crypto‑native setting.