Blockstream was founded in 2014 by Dr. Adam Back and a group of fellow cryptographers and engineers who are passionate about Bitcoin and its potential to change the world. Today, Blockstream is the leading Bitcoin company, providing cutting-edge infrastructure solutions for enterprises, institutions, and individual Bitcoin users. We develop industry-leading Bitcoin self-custody solutions, Bitcoin-based financial products, second-layer scaling technologies, and enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure.
Blockstream is seeking a Platform Architect to define and evolve the architectural foundation of our core platforms. This role is responsible for end-to-end system design, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and developer efficiency across Blockstream’s infrastructure and product ecosystem.
You will work closely with engineering, security, product, and leadership to design distributed systems that support high-value financial use cases, while upholding Bitcoin’s core principles of decentralization and trust minimization.
What You’ll Be Doing (Responsibilities):
Own the architecture and technical vision for Blockstream’s platform and shared services
Design scalable, secure, and fault-tolerant distributed systems supporting Bitcoin, Layer-2, and enterprise products
Define platform standards for APIs, data models, service boundaries, and infrastructure patterns
Partner with engineering teams to guide implementation, review designs, and resolve complex technical challenges
Collaborate with Security and Infrastructure teams to ensure defense-in-depth, key management, and operational resilience
Evaluate and introduce new technologies while balancing innovation with operational maturity
Ensure platform designs support regulatory, enterprise, and institutional requirements without compromising decentralization principles
Document architectural decisions, tradeoffs, and long-term technical roadmaps
Mentor senior engineers and help raise the overall architectural rigor across teams
What We Look For in You (Required Qualifications):
5+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale platforms or infrastructure systems
6-8 years of development experience building production-grade backend with strong security boundaries, authentication, authorization, key management, as well as designing APIs, data models, and distributed services that run reliably at scale.
Proven experience as a Platform Architect, Principal Engineer, or Senior Systems Architect
Deep understanding of distributed systems, including consensus, fault tolerance, replication, and networking
Strong experience with cloud and/or hybrid infrastructure (AWS, GCP, bare metal, Kubernetes, Terraform, etc.)
Expertise in security-critical systems, including authentication, authorization, cryptography, and key management
Experience designing high-availability systems for financial or mission-critical applications
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders
Comfort working in a remote, globally distributed team
Nice to Have (Preferred Qualifications):
Hands-on experience with Bitcoin, Lightning, Liquid, or blockchain infrastructure
Experience contributing to open-source projects
Familiarity with HSMs, secure enclaves, or hardware-backed key storage
Background in fintech, capital markets, or institutional financial systems
Experience balancing enterprise requirements with decentralized architectures
🔒 Stay Safe from Job Scams
All official Blockstream communication will come from an @blockstream.com email address. We will never ask you to share sensitive information or purchase equipment during the hiring process. If in doubt, contact us at [email protected]. Learn more about avoiding job scams here.
Skills Required
- 5+ years designing and operating large-scale platforms or infrastructure systems
- 6-8 years development experience building production-grade backends with strong security boundaries
- Proven experience as a Platform Architect, Principal Engineer, or Senior Systems Architect
- Deep understanding of distributed systems, including consensus, fault tolerance, replication, and networking
- Strong experience with cloud and/or hybrid infrastructure (AWS, GCP, bare metal, Kubernetes, Terraform)
- Expertise in security-critical systems, including authentication, authorization, cryptography, and key management
- Experience designing high-availability systems for financial or mission-critical applications
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for diverse stakeholders
- Comfort working in a remote, globally distributed team
- Hands-on experience with Bitcoin, Lightning, Liquid, or blockchain infrastructure
- Experience contributing to open-source projects
- Familiarity with HSMs, secure enclaves, or hardware-backed key storage
- Background in fintech, capital markets, or institutional financial systems
- Experience balancing enterprise requirements with decentralized architectures
What We Do
Blockstream’s mission is to create the financial infrastructure of the future. We build crypto-financial infrastructure based on Bitcoin, the most robust and secure blockchain. Applying cutting-edge cryptography and security engineering, we’re building the products and networks that make financial markets more efficient by reducing reliance on trust. With a long term outlook on delivering robust and scalable solutions, we invest heavily in research and development to strengthen the Bitcoin ecosystem and protocol. Peer-to-peer, open network finance holds the promise to change the world for the benefit of all. Blockstream is proud to be making this a reality.
