Senior Backend Developer

Galaxy•New York, NY

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

This role involves designing and building backend systems that power blockchain infrastructure and staking products across Galaxy. The focus areas include Ethereum-based systems, staking infrastructure (native and liquid), and blockchain data systems and APIs. The position offers significant ownership and influence, with the opportunity to shape architecture, development practices, and engineering culture. The role is hands-on, requiring end-to-end system ownership from architecture to observability, operating in a spec-first development environment that increasingly leverages AI-assisted workflows. Time allocation is approximately 60% building systems and features, 20% code review and mentorship, and 20% design, architecture, and product collaboration.

Requirements

7+ years of professional software engineering experience.
Strong experience building backend systems in Golang.
Deep understanding of distributed systems.
Experience working with blockchain systems, preferably Ethereum — including familiarity with execution vs consensus layers, node operation, and data flow.
Experience with cloud-native infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes, Helm, GitOps (e.g. Flux).
Strong testing practices for complex and stateful systems.
Experience working in remote, asynchronous teams.
High agency, low ego — you own your work end-to-end and hold yourself accountable for quality.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience with Ethereum nodes (execution and/or consensus clients) or validator and staking infrastructure.
Understanding of proof-of-stake mechanisms.
Experience building blockchain indexers, data pipelines, dApps, or smart contracts (Solidity).
Familiarity with AI-assisted development workflows: spec-driven development, code generation tools, MCP, or agent-based paradigms.
Contributions to open-source projects.
Experience with Rust.

Responsibilities

Build and own backend systems.
Design and build APIs, services, Ethereum data pipelines and indexers, staking and validator infrastructure integrations, and monitoring and operational tooling.
Own system design end-to-end: architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, and observability.
Work across the Ethereum stack, integrating with both execution layer and consensus layer clients.
Contribute to Liquid Collective alongside other staking and blockchain infrastructure projects across Galaxy.
Define and uphold engineering standards, including API design, testing strategies for distributed systems, reliability and fault tolerance, and security and key management practices.
Operate in a spec-first development environment, translating product and protocol requirements into clear technical specs before building.
Leverage AI-assisted development workflows (e.g. Claude Code) and work with emerging paradigms like MCP (Model Context Protocol) and agent-based tooling.
Collaborate cross-functionally with protocol, product, and infrastructure teams.
Mentor engineers through code review, design feedback, and raising the overall quality of what the team ships.
Contribute to how the team evolves its practices, improving the system rather than just executing within it.
Embrace and champion the thoughtful adoption of AI to improve team performance and business outcomes.
Leverage AI tools (e.g., generative AI, automation platforms, data copilots) to improve productivity, decision-making, and output quality in day-to-day work.

Benefits

Competitive base salary and discretionary bonus
Hybrid/Flexible Working Arrangements
Flexible Time Off (paid)
3% 401(k) company contribution
Company-paid health and protective benefits for employees, partners, and other dependents
Generous paid Parental Leave
Competitive family planning benefits for US employees
Opportunities to learn about the Crypto industry
Smart, entrepreneurial, and fun colleagues
Free daily snacks and weekly breakfasts/lunches
Employee Resource Groups
Free coaching and counseling sessions through Headspace