This team builds and evolves the backend systems at the core of our products and customer-facing solutions.
In this role, you'll design and operate distributed systems, work with Web3 infrastructure, and collaborate closely with product, support, and the clients building on our API to deliver reliable, scalable solutions.
We value strong ownership, thoughtful system design, and a high bar for code quality.
If you enjoy building solid systems, moving fast without cutting corners, and using AI as a core part of how you work, you'll feel right at home with us.
What You’ll Do
- Design, build, and maintain scalable distributed backend systems powering platform and product capabilities.
- Own backend services end-to-end: from architecture and implementation to monitoring and long-term reliability.
- Work closely with product and engineering peers to actively shape product decisions — not just execute specs.
- Scope solutions with the clients building on our API: turn a vague request into a concrete proposal, and the proposal into a plan the team can build.
- Build and evolve Web3 platform backend components, including protocol integrations, support for newly emerging blockchain networks, and reliable interactions with smart contracts.
- Ensure high standards of code quality, performance, security, and observability.
- Operate comfortably in a fast-paced startup environment, balancing speed and correctness.
- Use AI as a core part of your engineering workflow — designing, reviewing, debugging and shipping with it. This is how the team works day to day, not an experiment we're running.
- Contribute to technical discussions, reviews, and mentorship within the engineering team.
What We’re Looking For
- 5+ years of experience designing and building distributed backend systems.
- Strong knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and software design patterns.
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment.
- Strong desire to actively contribute to product evolution, not just implementation.
- Comfortable working directly with customers — hearing a vague problem and coming back with a concrete proposal.
- Hands-on, daily use of AI in your engineering work. You should be able to talk concretely about where it has changed how you build, and where you've learned not to trust it.
- High standards for code quality, system reliability, and user experience — you care about getting it right, not just getting it done.
- Strong ownership mindset — you take responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks.
- Clear and proactive communication in a distributed team.
- Pragmatic decision-making: knowing when to move fast vs. go deep.
- Ability to learn quickly and adapt.
Technical Skill Set
- Excellent knowledge of Golang is a plus, not a blocker.
- Experience with containerized systems: Docker & Kubernetes.
- Experience with databases:
- SQL: Postgres
- NoSQL: MongoDB, Cassandra
- Experience with monitoring and observability tools: Sentry, Prometheus, Grafana.
- Hands-on experience with AWS (Amazon Web Services).
- Experience with Python 3.
- Comfort experimenting with and integrating AI-assisted workflows into daily engineering work.
Bonus Points
- Hands-on Web3 experience: Blockchain systems, dApps, Smart contracts.
- Prior experience in a startup environment that emphasizes trust and autonomy.
- Located in time zones close to Europe for smoother collaboration.
- Collaborative mindset and respect for different perspectives.
- Curiosity and willingness to challenge existing solutions when better ones exist.
Interview Process
- Screening Call – 30 minutes
- Hiring Manager Interview – 45 minutes
- Technical Interview – 90 minutes (includes a real-world challenge where you'll work with AI tools directly)
- System Design Interview – 90 minutes
- Team Interview – 60 minutes
- Founders Call – up to 60 minutes
- Reference Check
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience designing and building distributed backend systems
- Strong knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and software design patterns
- Experience with containerized systems using Docker and Kubernetes
- Experience with SQL databases, particularly PostgreSQL
- Experience with NoSQL databases, including MongoDB and Cassandra
- Experience with monitoring and observability tools such as Sentry, Prometheus, and Grafana
- Hands-on experience with AWS
- Experience with Python 3
- Daily hands-on use of AI in engineering work
- Ability to work directly with customers and turn vague problems into concrete proposals
- Clear, proactive communication and strong ownership in a distributed team
- Golang experience
- Hands-on Web3 experience with blockchain systems, dApps, or smart contracts
- Prior startup experience emphasizing trust and autonomy
What We Do
At Zerion, we are on a mission to empower more people around the world with efficient, transparent, and censorship-resistant financial services. We do this by building applications, tools, and infrastructure enabling any smartphone holder, anywhere in the world, to build and manage their decentralized finance (DeFi) portfolios. The company was founded in 2016 by a technical team of crypto-native builders who sought to change the way centralized financial services work, primarily driven by experiencing the lack of financial opportunity within their countries. Zerion has grown to become one of the most popular DeFi interfaces in the world. Since inception, Zerion has processed over $1 billion in transaction volume and serves more than 200K monthly active users from over 150 countries. It has attracted significant investment from experienced investors such as Mosaic Ventures (investors in Alibaba Group and Pinterest), Lightspeed Ventures (investors in Snapchat), Placeholder Ventures, DeFi Alliance Fund, Continue Capital, DCG, and G1 Ventures amongst others. In 2019 and 2020, Zerion was awarded with the ‘best crypto UX/UI’ awards at DevCon Osaka 5 and London-based City AM’s inaugural Crypto AM awards respectively.









