Staff Protocol Engineer

Polygon Labs is a global blockchain payments company building and operating infrastructure to move money instantly, reliably, and at internet scale, with the mission to move all money onchain. It is building the Polygon Open Money Stack, an open and integrated stack of services and technologies to instantly and reliably move money anywhere, and put it to work. Its infrastructure has facilitated trillions of dollars in onchain value transfer and supported millions of transactions daily for some of the globe's largest banks, fintechs, enterprises, and consumer applications.

As a Staff Engineer on the Polygon Labs Chain Engineering team, you will lead the evolution of one of the most widely used blockchain networks toward a high-performance, payments-optimized future. Reporting to the SVP of Engineering, you will define and deliver critical upgrades across throughput, latency, and execution architecture, pushing the boundaries of what Ethereum-aligned infrastructure can achieve.

This role sits at the intersection of protocol design and real-world scalability. You will work on initiatives such as proposer-builder separation and MEV mitigation, parallelized transaction execution in the EVM, and achieving sub-second (targeting ~200ms) pre-confirmation and near-instant finality. You will also help shape the long-term roadmap around gigagas-scale throughput, specialized payment lanes for stablecoin transfers, and forward-looking efforts such as quantum-resilient infrastructure.

Polygon Labs is an AI-native engineering organisation. Engineers here use AI tooling as a core part of how they design, build, and ship - not as an afterthought. You will join a lean, high-caliber team and play a key role in setting technical direction, mentoring engineers, and delivering upgrades that directly impact millions of users and applications.

• Lead the design and implementation of next-generation scalability improvements across Polygon Chain, including gas throughput optimization and the path toward gigagas-scale execution.

• Drive architectural initiatives such as proposer-builder separation (PBS) and MEV mitigation strategies to improve network efficiency and fairness.

• Design and implement parallelized transaction processing within the EVM to unlock higher throughput and reduce execution bottlenecks.

• Advance low-latency user experience through pre-confirmation mechanisms and fast finality (targeting sub-second confirmation times).

• Explore and prototype specialized execution paths, including dedicated payment lanes for stablecoin transactions that are resilient to network congestion.

• Contribute to long-term protocol evolution, including research and early-stage implementation of quantum-resilient approaches in collaboration with research teams.

• Own and improve core components of the Chain stack, including contributions to Geth and related infrastructure.

• Apply AI-assisted development tools (code generation, automated testing, performance profiling) to accelerate prototyping, reduce iteration cycles, and ship working versions faster.

• Identify where AI and ML techniques (such as anomaly detection or predictive load modeling) can improve protocol performance or network observability, and drive their integration into the stack.

• Mentor engineers and uphold high standards for code quality, testing, and system design across the team, including responsible and effective use of AI tooling.

• Collaborate closely with research, DevOps, and security teams to safely deploy upgrades to production.

• 7+ years of experience in backend or protocol engineering, including experience operating at a senior or staff level.

• Strong proficiency in Golang and experience building distributed systems, consensus mechanisms, or blockchain infrastructure.

• Hands-on experience with Ethereum clients (such as Geth) or similar systems.

• Demonstrated experience leading architecture and delivering complex, high-performance systems.

• Solid understanding of performance optimization, including throughput, latency, and resource efficiency at scale.

• Fluency with AI-assisted development tools (such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent) as part of your daily engineering workflow, not occasional use.

• Ability to evaluate where AI or ML techniques add real value in a protocol context and where they do not, and to make that call independently.

• Comfort operating with light or evolving specs: you prototype early, ship working versions quickly, gather real feedback, and own work end-to-end from idea to live product.

• Experience working in distributed, asynchronous teams across time zones.

• Experience contributing to public blockchain protocols or open-source infrastructure.

• Familiarity with MEV, PBS, or transaction ordering systems.

• Exposure to parallel execution models or high-performance runtime design.

• Experience applying ML-based techniques to distributed systems problems, such as congestion prediction, anomaly detection, or adaptive resource allocation.

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly across engineering and non-engineering stakeholders.

The goal of the Polygon Labs total rewards program is to support the health and well-being of you and your family. Our comprehensive compensation plan includes the following benefits for our full time employees:

• Remote first global workforce

• Industry leading Medical, Dental and Vision health insurance*

• Company matching 401k with 3% match*

• $1,500 Home Office Set Up Allowance (life-time max)

• $200 AI Allowance Program

• $75 Monthly internet or phone reimbursement

• Flexible Time Off

• Company issued laptop

• Egg freezing, mental health, and employee wellness benefits

*In certain countries medical, dental and vision is fully covered for employees & their dependents. This is country and plan specific.

*401k is for United States employees only

Polygon Labs is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. Polygon Labs is committed to treating all people in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence. We believe in integration and equal opportunity. Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process and applicants with a disability may request to be accommodated throughout the recruitment process. We will work with all applicants to accommodate their individual accessibility needs.

If you think you have what it takes, but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch. We'd love to have a chat and see if you could be a great fit.

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