Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Blockchain Developer

🎯 Role Definition

We are hiring a pragmatic, security-first Blockchain Developer to design, build and operate production-grade decentralized systems. The ideal candidate will have deep experience with smart contract development (Solidity, Vyper or Rust), Web3 integrations (Ethers.js/Web3.js), on-chain/off-chain architecture, and strong software engineering practices including testing, CI/CD, monitoring and incident response. This role partners closely with product, security and backend teams to deliver scalable, gas-efficient and auditable blockchain features for DeFi, NFT, tokenization, payments, or enterprise distributed ledger applications.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Software Engineer (Backend/Full-Stack) with Web3 side projects
Smart Contract Engineer or Web3 Developer
Distributed Systems or Cryptography Engineer transitioning into blockchain

Advancement To:

Senior Blockchain Engineer / Tech Lead
Blockchain Architect / Head of Blockchain Engineering
Director of Engineering, Head of Product (Web3), or CTO for crypto-native teams

Lateral Moves:

DevOps / Site Reliability Engineer (blockchain infra focus)
Security Engineer / Smart Contract Auditor
Product Manager for Web3 products

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Architect, design, implement and maintain smart contracts and on-chain protocols with strong emphasis on security, upgradeability patterns, gas efficiency and backward compatibility to support tokenomics, staking, governance and DeFi primitives in production environments.
Build and maintain end-to-end decentralized applications (DApps) including smart contract backends, middleware, GraphQL/REST indexers, on-chain event processing and front-end wallet integrations (MetaMask, WalletConnect), ensuring seamless UX across chains.
Lead the design and implementation of cross-chain integrations, bridges, and messaging systems, including handling reorgs, finality, atomicity, and security trade-offs for multi-chain asset transfers.
Implement and operate Layer 2 and scaling solutions (Optimistic Rollups, zk-Rollups, sidechains), work with sequencers/relayers, and optimize for throughput and gas costs while preserving security guarantees.
Develop and maintain robust testing suites for smart contracts including unit tests, fuzz testing, property-based testing, integration tests and simulation of adversarial conditions using Truffle, Hardhat, Foundry, Ganache, or similar frameworks.
Perform smart contract audits, threat modeling and security reviews, triage third-party audit findings, implement remediations, and lead vulnerability disclosure or bug bounty processes to minimize on-chain risk.
Integrate decentralized oracles and off-chain data feeds (e.g., Chainlink), design resilient oracle aggregation, and implement fallback mechanisms and dispute resolution flows for real-world data inputs.
Implement cryptographic primitives and protocols where required, including asymmetric cryptography, hashing, signatures (ECDSA, EdDSA), Merkle proofs, state channels, threshold signatures, and familiarity with zk-SNARK/zk-STARK constructs.
Design and maintain developer tooling and SDKs (JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, Go) to accelerate internal developer onboarding, third-party integrations, and publish well-documented client libraries for Web3 consumers.
Collaborate with product managers and designers to translate product requirements into secure, low-latency on-chain/off-chain architectures and highlight trade-offs between decentralization, latency, and cost.
Work closely with DevOps and infrastructure teams to deploy and operate blockchain nodes, validators, indexers, relayers and monitoring/alerting pipelines using Docker, Kubernetes, Grafana, Prometheus and log aggregation.
Implement continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines for smart contracts and chain-dependent services with deterministic builds, reproducible artifact signing and secure key management for deployment.
Create and maintain detailed technical documentation: contract specifications, design decisions, upgrade/migration plans, gas profiling reports and onboarding guides for internal and external developers.
Migrate legacy contracts safely by designing upgradeable proxies, migration scripts, snapshotting, multi-sig governance handoffs and state migration strategies with clear rollback plans.
Evaluate and select base layer and middleware technologies (EVM vs non-EVM, Substrate, Cosmos SDK, Solana, Avalanche), and design integration patterns that align with product needs, cost profile and developer ergonomics.
Collaborate with security, legal and compliance teams to ensure token economics, KYC/AML interfaces, and regulatory requirements are considered in protocol design and deployment workflows.
Lead post-deployment monitoring and incident response for on-chain services: analyze on-chain events, abnormal gas usage, failed transactions, front-running/spam vectors and coordinate hot fixes or emergency governance actions.
Mentor junior engineers and onboarding developers on best practices for secure smart contract development, testing, gas optimization, and upgrade patterns while fostering a culture of code reviews and knowledge sharing.
Research emerging blockchain technologies such as zk proofs, optimistic rollups, new consensus algorithms and propose actionable pilots or POCs to improve scalability, privacy or cost efficiency.
Build and maintain integration tests and local development environments that simulate mainnet forks and real-world scenarios to validate contract behavior prior to deployment.
Implement token standards and governance modules (ERC-20/721/1155, PSP, CW-20), create composable contract libraries, and maintain compatibility with major wallets, marketplaces, and DeFi composability primitives.
Collaborate with external partners, exchanges and custodians to integrate token listings, deposits/withdrawals, and custody flows while managing on-chain settlement risks and fraud vectors.
Plan and execute gas profiling and performance tuning of critical contracts, reduce transaction costs via design patterns, batching, and on-chain/off-chain trade-offs to improve overall product economics.

Secondary Functions

Contribute to on-call rotations for blockchain infrastructure, respond to incidents involving nodes, relayers, or contract performance, and draft post-incident action items to prevent recurrence.
Support community developer initiatives, prepare reference applications and tutorials, run developer workshops, and provide technical evangelism to grow the ecosystem of integrators and partners.
Provide ad-hoc technical evaluations for vendor tools, SDKs, or third-party audits and make procurement recommendations based on technical fit and security posture.
Participate in sprint planning, agile ceremonies and roadmap discussions; translate product priorities into deliverable engineering milestones and estimate implementation complexity.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Solidity: Expert-level experience designing and implementing complex EVM smart contracts, including upgradeability (proxy patterns), libraries, and gas-optimized patterns.
Smart contract testing frameworks: Hands-on with Hardhat, Truffle, Foundry, Brownie, ethers.js, web3.js and test-driven smart contract development workflows.
Web3 integrations: Proficient building DApps and web integrations with Ethers.js, Web3.js, WalletConnect, and common wallet UX patterns.
Blockchain platforms: Practical experience with EVM chains (Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Avalanche), and familiarity with non-EVM stacks (Substrate/Rust, Solana) for multi-chain products.
On-chain/off-chain architecture: Designing indexers, subgraphs (The Graph), event processing, and robust middleware to bridge smart contracts with backend services.
Cryptography & security: Strong knowledge of cryptographic primitives (hashing, signatures), threat modeling, reentrancy, front-running mitigation, and secure key management.
DevOps & infra: Deploy and operate full nodes, validators, block explorers, relayers, and monitoring with Docker, Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana and log aggregation.
CI/CD & release processes: Experience creating deterministic builds, automated contract verification, governance-controlled deployments, and secure key handling in pipelines.
Oracles & external data: Integration experience with Chainlink oracles, IPFS/Arweave storage, and designing resilient off-chain data ingestion with fallback strategies.
Language proficiency: Strong software engineering skills in at least one backend language (TypeScript/Node.js, Go, Python, or Rust) for building middleware, SDKs, and services.
Performance & cost optimization: Gas profiling, transaction batching, and state management techniques to reduce on-chain operational costs and improve UX.
Static analysis & formal methods: Familiarity with Slither, MythX, Manticore, Certora, or formal verification tools to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities.
Cross-chain & bridge design: Knowledge of cross-chain messaging patterns, relayer economics, and secure bridge architectures to move assets safely.
Database & indexing: Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, queueing systems (Kafka/RabbitMQ), and building resilient indexers for historical on-chain data.
Wallet & hardware integration: Experience integrating hardware wallet signing flows and supporting secure UX for custodial/non-custodial setups.

(At least 10 of the above are present; list emphasizes keywords for SEO and LLMs: Solidity, Web3, EVM, Substrate, Rust, cryptography, Layer 2, DeFi, NFTs.)

Soft Skills

Strong communication: Able to explain complex cryptographic and protocol trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders, write clear RFCs and design docs.
Security-first mindset: Attention to detail with a relentless focus on preventing live-money vulnerabilities and minimizing blast radius for bugs.
Product orientation: Understand user experience and product goals to balance decentralization, cost, and speed; translate requirements into pragmatic technical solutions.
Collaboration & cross-functional work: Experienced working with product managers, designers, legal and security teams to deliver aligned outcomes.
Mentorship & knowledge sharing: Willingness to coach junior engineers, lead code reviews, and grow internal capability for secure smart contract development.
Problem solving and troubleshooting: Strong analytical skills for root-cause analysis during incidents, debugging on-chain and off-chain flows under pressure.
Adaptability and continuous learning: Keeps up-to-date with fast-moving blockchain research, EIPs, and industry best practices and applies them pragmatically.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics or equivalent practical experience in blockchain development.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree or advanced coursework in Cryptography, Distributed Systems, Computer Science, or related fields.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science / Software Engineering
Cryptography / Applied Mathematics
Distributed Systems / Networking
Finance / Economics (for tokenomics & DeFi roles)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 2+ years of focused blockchain or smart contract development in production.

Preferred:

4+ years of software engineering with at least 2+ years delivering production smart contracts, DApps, or blockchain infrastructure; prior experience contributing to audited protocols, live deployments, or open-source blockchain projects is highly desirable.
Demonstrable portfolio of deployed contracts, published audits, whitepapers, or public repositories showcasing secure, performant blockchain solutions.