Senior Back-end Software Engineer

About the Role

We're seeking a senior software engineer to join the Dusk Labs engineering team and build a high-performance perpetual futures cryptocurrency exchange. This role requires expertise in low-latency systems, distributed architectures, and financial infrastructure.

You'll be designing and implementing critical components including the order matching engine, risk management systems, liquidation mechanisms, and real-time market data feeds.

You'll be on a high-performing team with other expert-level developers who are passionate about learning and working on interesting problems.

Responsibilities

• Build high-performance, low-latency trading systems using Rust (90%) and TypeScript (10%).
• Build and maintain the order matching engine with microsecond-level latency requirements.
• Build and maintain risk management systems including margin calculations, position tracking, and automated liquidations.
• Build and maintain WebSocket infrastructure for real-time market data and order updates capable of handling tens of thousands of concurrent connections.
• Design database schemas and queries optimized for high-throughput financial data.
• Implement security-critical systems for handling user funds and sensitive financial data.
• Write and maintain automated tests including unit, integration, and load tests.
• Design systems for global scale with high availability and fault tolerance.
• Optimize critical paths for performance, including connection sharding and frame coalescing strategies.
• Collaborate with front-end developers to design and maintain trading APIs.
• Stay current with DeFi protocols, perpetual futures mechanisms, and emerging exchange architectures.

Required Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals with 5+ years of experience.
• Strong expertise with Rust, particularly for high-performance systems.
• Experience building production financial or trading systems.
• Deep understanding of order book mechanics, matching algorithms, and market microstructure.
• Experience with WebSocket implementations and real-time bidirectional communication at scale.
• Knowledge of Linux systems administration and performance optimization.
• Experience designing database schemas for financial data with ACID guarantees.
• Strong focus on writing secure code with understanding of financial system attack vectors.
• Familiarity with cryptocurrency ecosystems and DeFi protocols.
• Understanding of perpetual futures mechanics including funding rates, index prices, and liquidation cascades.
• Strong desire to learn and improve.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with high-performance systems or financial infrastructure.
• Experience with order matching engine implementations or market making systems.
• Background in quantitative finance or algorithmic trading.
• Contributions to open source projects in Rust, DeFi, or trading infrastructure.
• Experience with blockchain integration for deposits, withdrawals, and settlements.

About Dusk Labs

We are an engineering-driven development agency that helps early-stage companies kick-start their engineering operations, or mid-stage companies develop greenfield software projects.

We strive to maintain expertise at the cutting-edge of technology, take pride in doing high quality work, and differentiate ourselves from other development teams through our results.

You'll be a good fit if you are passionate about technology, like getting things done, learning new things, and working on interesting problems.

You'll also be a good fit if you like freedom. We respect your autonomy and don't have strict rules on how and when you work. We only have occasional meetings, and prefer asynchronous communication. When we do have meetings, we try to knock them out all at once to maximize uninterrupted work time.

If you've got a public record of your work, whether that's a body of talks and publications, or especially open source software projects, we'd love to see it. You'll go to the front of the interview line.

Your Application

We understand the current job market is an employer's market, and that a lot of employers have been using AI tools to automatically sort through the large volume of applicants.

At Dusk Labs, each application is reviewed by a human. We do not want you to run your resume through AI to tailor it to the job post so it gets through automatic filters. We do not want you to pull keywords out of the job description to include in your answer to the screen questions.

If you apply like a human, your application will stand out significantly.

Compensation

1. On-Target Earnings: $250,000/yr composed of $160,000 in base salary + $90,000 in performance-based bonuses.
2. 6% 401(k) match.
3. Really good insurance, 50% of the cost covered by us.
4. $5,000 discretionary education budget to attend conferences, trainings, and workshops of your choosing. Covers your flight, hotel, per diem, and tickets.