Lead Protocol Engineer (Aera Protocol)

We build protocols.

Auditless is a web3-native protocol studio focused on protocol strategy, design & development. We help crypto protocols improve their performance through strategic advisory and protocol development.

Not a dev shop.

Our process combines techniques from strategy consulting, product management, and high-assurance software engineering to ensure that the features we ship deliver bottom-line impact. We are proud to collaborate with some of the most sophisticated and impactful companies in crypto.

Partnering with ambition

We are not afraid to work on ambitious ideas from the earliest stages. We enjoy building products that aim to radically improve user experience in large markets and we actively seek out problems that are research heavy in their scope.

We do this for fun

Auditless is an independently owned studio and not beholden to any outside interests. We actively choose projects that we think will be impactful and also challenge us in new ways.

TL:DR;

This role is ideal for someone who is looking to “do their best work yet” in the crypto space and challenge themselves to go deep on new topics every week. One day you will be looking at low-level gas optimization, another you'll think about how a modular architecture can help unlock new use cases for a protocol. This will be an opportunity to make a lasting contribution by helping develop a groundbreaking protocol solving a real use case.

The right candidate understands that product success doesn't just come down to the code and is equally excited to collaborate with other talented individuals and is comfortable taking the product perspective on protocol design from time to time.

This is an Aera-specific opportunity.

Aera is a trust-minimized treasury management protocol for crypto institutions and was incubated by Gauntlet, the leading economic simulation company. Auditless lead Aera protocol development on behalf of the Aera Foundation and in close collaboration with the Gauntlet team that is focused on the overall Aera product.

If you're excited to work on a challenging, high-profile project with many complex research themes and to get involved in designing and building a category-defining protocol built by a team that cares deeply about writing secure & high-quality smart contract code, this is the role for you.

What you'll do

- Write and review high-assurance smart contract code, tests, invariants, and other deliverables for our protocol projects using industry best practices

- Research protocol design & architecture. Collaborate effectively with client team members. Create impactful communications that help drive decision-making. Help identify market and technology opportunities

- Conduct internal security audits with an emphasis on robust process, continuous learning and ownership

- Help build and manage a small but growing team of engineers

- Contribute and evolve our internal methodologies, coding standards, review methods, and other standard operating procedures

- Contribute compelling and clear protocol documentation both in-code and in dedicated spaces

- Write blog posts or other forms of content marketing related to your work from time to time

- Discuss protocol usage with clients/users of the protocol and help evaluate other protocols/infrastructure we could integrate with

- This is a client-facing role. The ideal candidate will be excited to work closely with top-tier crypto institutions and talent on a high-impact project. May involve some US travel to joint off-sites

Required Qualifications

- 5+ years of experience in a professional engineering role

- 2+ years of experience in Solidity smart contract development

- 1+ years of experience in protocol design/architecture

- Comfortable learning about and contributing to complex DeFi protocols that may involve an understanding of MEV, trading, incentives, mechanism design

- Ability to work efficiently in a remote environment

- Ability to effectively communicate, collaborate, and connect with clients, partners, and other third parties

- Excitement to work in an early stage setting with significant uncertainty, evolving scope/requirements, and many hats to wear

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with Foundry & invariant testing

- Experience conducting security reviews

- Experience managing other engineers

- Experience working in a highly collaborative or client-facing organization

- Experience writing public-facing content/documentation

- Experience in quantitative math / Python data science