Senior Backend Engineer (Rust)

ABOUT COW DAO CoW DAO is on a mission to build the most robust, user-protective, and efficient trading infrastructure in DeFi. We are the creators behind CoW Protocol (the engine behind CoW Swap). Operating as a dominant player in DeFi, CoW Protocol recently crossed a massive milestone of over $200 Billion in lifetime trading volume and consistently ranks as a top-two DEX aggregator by market share. Through combinatorial batch auctions, a competitive network of "solvers," and our unique Coincidence of Wants (CoW) matching engine, we protect traders from MEV bots and secure the absolute best execution prices on the market. Learn more https://cow.fi/cow-swap ABOUT THE ROLE Location: We are a fully remote team, and although we hire almost globally, there is a preference for this role to be based in Europe or remote +/- 4 hours CEST time Please note we’re not hiring from the US, Australia, or New Zealand Position: Full-time contractor We are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated Senior Backend Engineer to help us build the next generation of decentralised trading protocols. As a dedicated backend engineer, you will gain ownership of our existing backend services and influence the creation, design, and execution of future features and products. You will work on technically challenging aspects of our off-chain services and our developer-facing APIs and help ensure the delivery of reliable and performant features to improve CoW Protocol. Our Tech Stack - Backend Code: Rust, Tokio, Cargo, Git (https://github.com/cowprotocol/services) - Infrastructure: Pulumi, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Grafana, Prometheus, Elasticsearch - Other codebases: Typescript, Python, Solidity WHAT YOU WILL DO - Architect and design our off-chain services (core auction protocol as well as the orderbook) to support feature growth and the rapidly changing requirements that come from being an application on a constantly evolving blockchain. - While your focus will be writing concurrent backend systems in Rust, you will also interact with our Smart Contracts written in Solidity and develop your understanding of auction mechanisms and DeFi protocols - Participate in our on-call rotation to help ensure the reliability of our production systems (on-call work is additionally compensated) - Work closely with researchers and the product team to ship features and come up with new solutions for challenging technical problems - Deliver high-quality code for features from concept until production (including state-of-the-art monitoring of our production systems) - Give thoughtful and in-depth code reviews of your colleagues’ contributions to our open-source codebase WHO YOU ARE - You have 8+ years of production experience with systems-level programming languages, with at least 3+ years of hands-on production experience using Rust - You have practical experience working in web3 (ideally in DeFi and the Ethereum ecosystem) - You have excellent computer science, programming, and algorithmic skills - Experience with operating, maintaining, and architecting complex software systems - You care deeply about the quality, readability, observability, and testability of your code - You proactively give technical direction to improve performance, prevent issues, optimise data usage, and refactor the codebase - You are a team player, strong communicator, and gladly share your expertise with others - You collaborate effectively with a remote-first team on a large, open-source codebase - Ideally, someone senior who can mentor colleagues and provide direction. - You are excited to explore and gain experience with Ethereum WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU - Flexible work environment: Join our hub in Lisbon or work remotely - Token plan: Have a stake in our mission and shape the future of CoW DAO - Periodic gatherings: Enjoy opportunities to connect with the rest of the team through regular trips - Conference allocation: Stay up-to-date with ecosystem advancements using our conference budget - Learning b…