Staff Protocol Engineer - Remote at Polygon Labs

About the Role

We're hiring a Staff Protocol Engineer to join Polygon Labs, a leading blockchain payments company. As a Staff Protocol Engineer remote, you'll play a critical role in evolving one of the most utilized networks in the Web3 ecosystem. Your expertise will help us address scalability, state growth, and latency challenges while setting the architectural direction for the future of Polygon PoS.

What You'll Do

• Lead design and prototyping of long-term solutions to address scalability, latency, and state growth challenges on the Polygon PoS network.
• Drive architectural decisions across the PoS codebase, contributing to Geth, Cosmos SDK, or CometBFT-based systems as needed.
• Identify and resolve deep technical issues in protocol behavior, consensus, and state sync.
• Champion code quality, documentation, testing, and developer best practices across the team.
• Mentor and support engineers across the stack to elevate the overall engineering bar.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with protocol researchers, DevOps, security, and ecosystem teams to ship robust upgrades to the live network.

Requirements

• 7+ years of backend or protocol engineering experience, with 2+ years in senior or staff-level roles.
• Deep experience working in Golang, ideally within distributed systems, consensus, or blockchain infrastructure.
• Experience contributing to or working with Ethereum clients (e.g., Geth) or Cosmos-based stacks (e.g., Cosmos SDK, CometBFT).
• Demonstrated ability to lead architecture, code quality, and complex system design in fast-paced engineering teams.
• Comfortable working asynchronously with distributed teams in EMEA, US East Coast, or adjacent time zones.

Nice to Have

• Previous contributions to public blockchain protocols or open-source infrastructure.
• Familiarity with performance optimization tools and techniques in large-scale systems.
• Ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly across varied stakeholders.
• Passion for decentralized systems and aligning infrastructure to Ethereum’s values.

What We Offer

• 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 Annual Book Allowance Program.
• $75 Monthly internet or phone reimbursement.
• Flexible Time Off.
• Company issued laptop.
• Egg freezing, mental health, and employee wellness benefits.

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. 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.