Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Validator

💰 $60,000 - $150,000

OperationsQuality AssuranceBlockchainComplianceData

🎯 Role Definition

As a Validator, you will be responsible for ensuring the integrity, accuracy, and reliability of transactions, data, or content across our platform. This role may operate in blockchain node operations, data validation, financial transaction verification, or quality assurance contexts. The ideal candidate combines strong technical expertise (Linux, networking, scripting, monitoring), domain knowledge (blockchain protocols, KYC/AML, ETL or QA tooling), and excellent investigative skills to detect, resolve, and prevent validation errors while maintaining high availability, performance, and compliance with organizational and regulatory standards.

Key keywords: Validator, blockchain validator, data validation, transaction verification, node operations, quality assurance, KYC/AML compliance, smart contracts, ETL validation, monitoring and alerting.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • QA Analyst or Quality Engineer with strong testing and validation background
  • Systems Administrator or DevOps Engineer with Linux, networking and monitoring experience
  • Data Engineer or ETL Developer focused on data quality and pipeline validation
  • Blockchain Developer / Node Operator with protocol and consensus experience

Advancement To:

  • Senior Validator / Lead Validator
  • Node Operations Manager or Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
  • Head of Trust & Safety or Head of Validation Services
  • Product Owner for validation tooling or Data Quality Lead

Lateral Moves:

  • DevOps / Platform Engineer
  • Security Engineer (Infrastructure or Application Security)
  • Data Quality Engineer or Data Governance Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  1. Operate and maintain validator nodes or validation services to ensure 24/7 availability and fault tolerance, including routine upgrades, patching, and backup/restore procedures.
  2. Validate transactions, blocks, or data sets according to protocol rules, business logic, and regulatory requirements, ensuring correctness before finalization or reconciliation.
  3. Monitor real-time metrics and logs using observability tooling (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK) to detect anomalies, performance regressions, and validation failures; escalate incidents per SLA.
  4. Develop, maintain, and run automated validation tests and end-to-end validation suites that cover edge cases, consensus rules, and integration points with downstream systems.
  5. Investigate and triage validation errors or exceptions, perform root cause analysis, and coordinate cross-functional remediation with engineering, product, and operations teams.
  6. Implement and maintain robust alerting, runbooks, and incident playbooks for common validation failures and node/operator issues, and participate in on-call rotations.
  7. Audit and verify data lineage across ETL pipelines, databases, and APIs to ensure integrity and consistency of validated datasets used for reporting and downstream consumption.
  8. Review and approve configuration changes, smart contract deployments, or parameter updates related to validation logic to minimize risk of breaking consensus or data integrity.
  9. Execute KYC/AML, fraud detection, and compliance checks where required, collaborating with compliance and legal to ensure validated transactions meet regulatory standards.
  10. Collaborate with engineering teams to design validation hooks, invariants, and pre-commit checks to catch errors earlier in the development lifecycle.
  11. Build and maintain scripts and automation (Python, Bash, Go, Rust) to reduce manual validation effort and increase repeatability of validation processes.
  12. Create and maintain comprehensive validation documentation, including procedure manuals, test cases, data dictionaries, and post-incident reports to support auditability and knowledge transfer.
  13. Participate in design reviews to provide validation and testability recommendations for new features, APIs, or smart contracts prior to release.
  14. Execute coordinated rollouts and canary releases of validator software versions, assessing validation outcomes and rolling back when data integrity is impacted.
  15. Perform data reconciliations between source systems and validated outputs, identifying missing or duplicated records and coordinating corrective actions with data owners.
  16. Maintain secure key management and cryptographic practices for validator operations, including rotation policies, HSM or secure enclave integration, and privilege governance.
  17. Lead performance tuning and capacity planning for validator infrastructure to meet throughput and latency requirements under varying load conditions.
  18. Design and execute stress and chaos testing scenarios to validate robustness of validation logic and node resilience under partial-failure conditions.
  19. Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to define SLAs, validation acceptance criteria, and KPIs that measure validation accuracy and operational health.
  20. Provide training, mentoring, and knowledge transfer to junior validators and cross-functional teams on validation best practices and tooling.
  21. Maintain continuous improvement by identifying tooling gaps, proposing validation automation or observability enhancements, and delivering proof-of-concept solutions.
  22. Participate in audits and external reviews, supplying evidence, logs, and validation artifacts to demonstrate compliance with regulatory and internal governance requirements.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist product teams with acceptance criteria and validation steps for user stories related to transaction flows or data outputs.
  • Prepare executive summaries and technical briefings on validation health, incident trends, and remediation progress.
  • Stay current with protocol upgrades, RFCs, and industry best practices for validators, data validation frameworks, and compliance regimes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Operating Systems: Advanced Linux administration (systemd, networking, kernel tuning) for reliable validator operation.
  • Networking: TCP/IP, BGP basics, firewalls, load balancers, NAT, and secure connectivity for node-to-node and peer communications.
  • Scripting & Programming: Strong scripting in Python, Bash, or Node.js; experience with Go or Rust is a plus for blockchain validator tooling.
  • Databases & Querying: SQL proficiency for data reconciliation; familiarity with OLTP/OLAP systems and data warehouses.
  • Observability & Monitoring: Hands-on with Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/EFK, Datadog or similar tools for metrics, logs, and alerting.
  • Containerization & Orchestration: Docker and Kubernetes experience to deploy, scale, and manage validator services.
  • CI/CD & Automation: Familiarity with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or equivalent for automated testing and deployment.
  • Cryptography & Key Management: Understanding of public/private key infrastructure, HSMs, key rotation, and secure storage for validator keys.
  • Blockchain & Smart Contracts (if applicable): Knowledge of consensus mechanisms (PoS, PoW, etc.), node software operation, smart contract basics (Solidity/Move) and chain-specific tooling.
  • Data Validation Tools: Experience with data validation frameworks like Great Expectations, Deequ, or custom ETL validation suites.
  • Cloud Platforms: AWS, GCP, or Azure experience for infrastructure provisioning, networking, and secure deployments.
  • Security & Compliance: Familiarity with KYC/AML processes, SOC/ISO compliance practices, and secure operational procedures.
  • Version Control & Collaboration: Git fluency and experience working in collaborative code review workflows.
  • Testing & QA: Writing and executing unit, integration, and end-to-end validation tests; experience with load testing and chaos engineering.
  • Incident Response: Practical experience with runbooks, on-call rotations, and post-incident review processes.

(Include at least 10 of the above skills when shortlisting candidates for this role.)

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional attention to detail and a relentless focus on data and transaction integrity.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities to diagnose complex validation failures.
  • Clear written and verbal communication skills for incident reports, documentation, and stakeholder updates.
  • Customer-centric mindset with the ability to translate technical validation outputs into business impact.
  • Collaborative and cross-functional teamwork to coordinate fixes across engineering, product, and compliance teams.
  • Time management and prioritization for handling incidents, scheduled maintenance, and feature validations concurrently.
  • Initiative and continuous learning orientation to stay current with protocol changes and validation tools.
  • Resilience under pressure with disciplined incident management and calm escalation behavior.
  • Ethical judgement and confidentiality handling sensitive transactional or user data.
  • Mentorship and coaching ability to raise the overall validation capability within the organization.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Mathematics, Finance, or a related technical field OR equivalent practical experience (relevant certifications and hands-on validator/node operations experience accepted).

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in a relevant discipline or specialized certifications (e.g., Certified Information Systems Security Professional, cloud provider certifications, blockchain-protocol specific training).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology / Systems Engineering
  • Data Science / Analytics
  • Cybersecurity / Cryptography
  • Finance / Risk & Compliance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–7 years of combined experience in operations, QA, data engineering, DevOps, or blockchain node management.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years operating production validator services, blockchain nodes, or mission-critical validation systems OR
  • 3+ years in data validation, QA engineering, or transaction verification roles in fintech, payments, or data-intensive products.
  • Demonstrated experience building automation, monitoring, and incident response processes for validation workflows.
  • Experience working within regulated environments (financial services, healthcare, or public blockchain ecosystems) is a plus.

If you want, I can tailor this Validator job description specifically for a blockchain validator, a data/ETL validator, or a financial transaction/KYC validator to better match your hiring needs and job board SEO.

Explore More Careers