Staff Software Engineer, Backend
Helius · Remote · North America ·
COMPENSATION
€•• – ••k
Listed on the employer's job board (Ashby)
- Staff level role
- Fully remote
- Rust preferred
- Solana infrastructure
- High-impact backend
Join Helius as a Staff Backend Engineer to take ownership of foundational infrastructure such as Gatekeeper, Data Streaming, or Account Index. You will define architectural decisions and drive performance engineering for systems that power major applications in the Solana ecosystem.
This position requires deep systems-level expertise and the ability to mentor other engineers while partnering with leadership on long-term technical strategy. You will operate in a small team with enormous scope, ensuring reliability and speed at scale.
What you'll do
- Own technical direction for core backend systems including architecture and roadmap
- Design solutions for complex problems in distributed systems and streaming pipelines
- Drive performance engineering by profiling and optimizing latency and throughput
- Set standards for observability, incident response, and operational excellence
- Partner with founders and leadership to define long-term technical strategy
- Mentor senior and mid-level engineers and influence technical consensus
- Solve ambiguous problems that span multiple systems and domains
What you'll need
- 8+ years of backend engineering experience with large-scale production systems
- Deep systems-level expertise where software meets hardware
- Proficiency in Rust, C++, or Go for systems programming
- Proven ability to own and evolve complex systems from architecture to operations
- Experience leading cross-team technical initiatives to completion
- Strong performance engineering instincts for profiling and fixing hot paths
- Thrives in fast-moving environments with high ownership and intensity
Nice to have
- Expertise in distributed storage, streaming infrastructure, or query engines
- Experience operating systems at petabyte scale or microsecond latency
- On-call ownership of mission-critical production services
- Interest in Solana, blockchain infrastructure, or real-time financial systems
- Open source contributions or technical writing demonstrating depth
- Mix of large and small company experience
Stack
- Rust
- C++
- Go
- Solana
How you'll work
- Fully remote and distributed team
- Flexible work location
What you get
- Market-leading salary
- Meaningful equity package
- Generous vacation policy
- Wellness budgets
- Support for learning and travel