Context

Dfns is a cybersecurity company that builds custody SaaS protocol for web3 apps. Think of it as a developer tool that provides secure cloud for crypto. Our mission is to bring serenity to DeFi by eliminating new blockchain risks and making crypto transactions easier, faster, more affordable, and compliant with existing regulations.

From fintechs to large banks to e-commerce sites, Dfns gives financial institutions and businesses the freedom to own and transfer crypto on a battle-designed security infrastructure. Our API is designed to offer best-in-class developer experience allowing any platform to deploy custodial wallets in a matter of days, with streamlined feature delivery and frequent security upgrades.

Founded in 2020 in Paris, Dfns is a startup incubated at Station F (awarded Future 40), accelerated by Techstars and recognized DeepTech by the French Ministry of Economy. Our company is fully remote with offices in Paris, Amsterdam, New York, London, Stockholm, Sofia, and other cities.

Job Description

You will contribute to one of the most ambitious technology projects in crypto today: building a trustless custody infrastructure for the trillion-dollar digital asset industry.

You will join an amazing team of leaders (CTO, CPO, VP of Research) and experts (R&D Engineers, Infrastructure Engineers, Security Engineers) in a highly challenging and collaborative environment.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to produce and implement functional software solutions. You will work with upper management to define software requirements and take the lead on operational and technical projects. In this role, you should be in charge of important sub-departmental projects and rely on excellent organizational and problem-solving skills.

As a Principal Software Engineer, you should be able to drive the software change and release management processes, assisting with the overall maturity of the software development lifecycle. Ultimately, a top-notch principal software engineer will ensure that software deliverables comply with quality standards and are completed on time.

Mission

Your primary goal will be to develop, test, and maintain high-quality software that is aligned with customer needs and business goals.

Example of a primary metric would be Time to Delivery.

Your day-to-day projects will involve:

• Sharing the big picture to your team, defining the levels of priority within the product roadmap, and being accountable for the deadlines and the quality of production.
• Acting as a powerhouse of ideas on all technical issues.
• Ensuring scalability and high availability of the product, as well as top-notch code quality.
• Determining root cause for the most complex software issues and developing practical, efficient, and permanent technical solutions.
• Building, operating, and ensuring the security of the product, namely the API and network.
• Evaluating product code according to specifications, and gathering product requirements (e.g. functionalities, speed, safety standards)
• Responding effectively and speedily to any problems, and documenting all reported malfunctions and actions taken in response.
• Authoring and updating internal and external documentation.
• Facilitating cross-team communication and know-how exchange between team members.
• Implementing technical best practices and new ideas to encourage innovation within your team.
• Working closely with the CTO, CPO, and product team to transform feedback into features.
• Working closely with CISO to embed best-in-class information security processes within the service architecture and the internal workflows.
• Keeping abreast of the latest developments in crypto, DeFi and blockchain to feed the company's strategic orientations.
• Continually researching current and emerging technologies and propose changes.
• Occasionally participating in client meetings to help them better benchmark our solution against market alternatives.

Requirements

• 10+ years experience as a Software Engineer or similar role.
• Proven track record working on developer tools, cybersecurity software, infrastructure products, and/or API products.
• Ensure scalability and high availability of the product, as well as top-notch code quality.
• Profound experience in designing and developing secure APIs (in RESTful, GraphQL).
• In-depth understanding of coding languages, namely Rust, Go and/or Typescript.
• Engineering expert capabilities of challenging the reasoning of other engineers.
• Experience in writing Unit Tests, Integration Tests, End-to-end tests, performance tests, chaos engineering.
• Knowledgeable with SQL (PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (whatever suits for the job) databases.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, and setting up environments between them.
• Experience building CI/CD pipelines, 12-Factor App, and domain-driven microservices.
• Must have experience with Terraform.
• Understanding of Functional Programming, Object-Oriented, and Logic Programming.
• Experience in building observable systems with Datadog, Splunk, etc.
• Good knowledge of standard algorithms and data structures.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience testing secure, fault-tolerant, and resilient systems.
• Founding-spirited with grit and guts to pursue complex worldwide ambitions.
• Humble, respectful, and very professional to others.
• Able to decide even in stressful, unstable situations.
• Appetite for Cybersecurity, Fintech, Blockchain and/or Crypto industries.
• [Bonus] Hands-on experience and willingness to contribute to open source projects.
• [Bonus] Proven work experience in blockchain, DeFi and/or cybersecurity industries.
• [Bonus] Extensive knowledge about the crypto custody industry and its use cases.

Benefits

• Title: Principal Software Engineer
• Salary: €140-300K / year (avg base range).
• Equity: 0.4-0.6% (≈ €14.4-21.8M in case of €2B exit).
• Bonus: Peer and spot bonuses after 8 months with us.
• Location: Hybrid. You can either work in our offices, from home, or remote.
• Paid time off: No less than 30 days per year, plus national holidays.
• Employee benefits: healthcare, life insurance, retirement plan, sponsored transportation, gym cards, food, Apple devices and home office equipment, tuition fee assistance, team retreats, and more.