Systems Engineer

Layer Zero The Future is Omnichain. Founded in 2021, Layer Zero’s vision is to create a community of cross-chain developers, building dApps that are no longer constrained by individual blockchain capabilities. With Layer Zero's simple, generic messaging protocol, builders will develop cross-chain dApps designed to unify the power of individual blockchains. We are funded by the best investors in the world including: a16z, Sequoia, Pay Pal, Binance Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uniswap Labs, Circle Ventures, Delphi Digital, and many more.

We’re seeking a Systems Engineer to join Layer Zero. In this role, you’ll build the foundational systems that power our execution and infrastructure layers, including Zero. This is a low-level, performance‑critical role focused on runtime architecture, concurrency, and scalable execution. You will make architectural decisions that directly impact how our systems execute, scale, and remain stable under load.

We’re looking for an engineer experienced in building robust, high-performance systems who is excited about solving hard infrastructure problems. You’ll work on distributed execution systems with strict correctness and performance requirements.

Architect high-performance systems and leverage AI to implement them in Rust. Build and optimize core runtime, networking, or state management components. Profile and improve performance both at low-level (CPU, memory) and cluster-scale (network, scheduling). Debug race conditions, deadlocks, and production performance issues. Contribute to architectural decisions around scheduling, synchronization, and system scalability. Own systems end-to-end from design through production.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. 2+ years of experience building systems-level or performance-critical software. Strong proficiency in systems programming and leveraging AI to build software. Deep understanding of concurrency, CPU architecture, cache hierarchy, and operating systems. Experience designing or contributing to low-level storage, compute, or network infrastructure. Strong intuition for striking a pragmatic balance between complexity for performance and simplicity for robustness.

Experience using low-level profiling and debugging tools in production environments. Interest in working on distributed and execution-layer systems.

Layer Zero Labs is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. Layer Zero Labs is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected status.