Staff Software Engineer, Performance

At Ripple, we’re building a world where value moves like information does today. It’s big, it’s bold, and we’re already doing it. Through our crypto solutions for financial institutions, businesses, governments and developers, we are improving the global financial system and creating greater economic fairness and opportunity for more people, in more places around the world. And we get to do the best work of our career and grow our skills surrounded by colleagues who have our backs. 

If you’re ready to see your impact and unlock incredible career growth opportunities, join us, and build real world value.

THE WORK:

RippleX is dedicated to empowering the builders of tomorrow on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), one of the world’s fastest and most reliable public blockchains. We believe in democratizing the digital economy by providing practical support, empowering a community of developers, and offering the expertise of a visionary technology company.

The XRPL is a decentralized, public blockchain led by a global community of businesses and developers looking to solve problems and create value. Proven reliable over more than a decade of operation and closing over 90 million ledger, the XRPL offers streamlined development, low transaction costs, high performance, and sustainability. We are looking for a senior engineer to help us maintain this high technical bar, while building innovative solutions to ensure the XRPL can power the growing needs of the global digital economy.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Craft and implement performance test plans for XRPL's peer-to-peer (P2P) network, simulating real-world traffic patterns and node behaviors
• Develop custom load generators and network simulators to test latency, efficiency, scalability, and peer connection stability under stress
• Perform deep-dive root cause analysis using profiling tools across OS, network stack, and XRPL core to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies
• Build observability dashboards and real-time metrics collection tools to monitor node health, consensus timings, and ledger close durations during test runs
• Collaborate with engineering, infra, and DevOps teams to align performance requirements, load forecasts, and production-readiness criteria
• Continuously optimize test environments and automation pipelines for high-fidelity simulation of P2P consensus workloads at scale

WHAT YOU'LL BRING: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, with 8+ years of experience in software performance engineering for complex distributed systems
• Deep understanding of Linux/Unix OS internals, including process management, networking stack, file I/O, and kernel-level metrics
• Strong knowledge of P2P networking concepts (e.g. gossip, NAT traversal, socket-level tuning, peer connection lifecycle) and experience analyzing performance in decentralized protocols
• Advanced proficiency in performance testing methodologies with expertise in measuring and tuning system metrics—latency, efficiency, scalability, availability, and capacity
• Hands-on coding and scripting skills (e.g., C++, Python, Shell) for building test harnesses, profiling tools, and log analysis pipelines
• Proven experience in debugging, root cause analysis, and optimization across software layers (C++ runtime, OS, network stack, database, etc.)
• Familiarity with observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, CloudWatch, or equivalent) and system instrumentation for real-time monitoring
• Solid understanding of cloud platforms (especially AWS), with experience using EC2, networking configurations, and autoscaling to model high-load distributed environments
• Experience with Linux system administration tasks, including performance tuning, resource limits configuration, and analyzing system-level logs and metrics
• Comfort working in collaborative environments and cross-functional teams, contributing to architecture and production-readiness from a performance lens

Other common names for this role: Performance Engineer

WHO WE ARE:

Do Your Best Work

• The opportunity to build in a fast-paced start-up environment with experienced industry leaders
• A learning environment where you can dive deep into the latest technologies and make an impact.  A professional development budget to support other modes of learning.
• Thrive in an environment where no matter what race, ethnicity, gender, origin, or culture they identify with, every employee is a respected, valued, and empowered part of the team.
• In-office collaboration for moments that matter is important to our culture, and we give managers and teams the flexibility to decide which 10+ days a month they come in. 
• Bi-weekly all-company meeting - business updates and ask me anything style discussion with our Leadership Team
• We come together for moments that matter which include team offsites, team bonding activities, happy hours and more!

Take Control of Your Finances

• Competitive salary, bonuses, and equity
• Competitive benefits that cover physical and mental healthcare, retirement, family forming, and family support
• Employee giving match
• Mobile phone stipend

Take Care of Yourself

• R&R days so you can rest and recharge
• Generous wellness reimbursement and weekly onsite & virtual programming
• Generous vacation policy - work with your manager to take time off when you need it
• Industry-leading parental leave policies. Family planning benefits.
• Catered lunches, fully-stocked kitchens with premium snacks/beverages, and plenty of fun events

Benefits listed above are for full-time employees.