Senior Specialty Protocol Engineer

Wells Fargo•Concord, CA

1d•$119,000 - $224,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Wells Fargo is seeking several Senior Specialty Software Developers (Protocol Engineers) to contribute to a next-generation Digital Asset Platform designed to solve the most critical challenge in institutional finance: achieving strict regulatory compliance without compromising transaction confidentiality. Wells Fargo is moving beyond standard public blockchains to build a custom, application-specific infrastructure. Our platform utilizes advanced cryptography to enable "auditable privacy"—allowing regulated institutions to settle digital assets securely while preserving strategic confidentiality, without relying on centralized intermediaries. As a Senior Protocol Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting the core settlement engine. You'll work at the intersection of distributed systems and applied cryptography, translating complex mathematical proofs into high-performance, production-grade Go code.

Requirements

4+ years of Specialty Software Engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience, training, military experience, education
Systems Engineering: 3+ years of experience in backend or systems programming, with expert-level proficiency in Go (Golang)
Applied Cryptography: 6+ months of experience with Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)
Distributed Systems: 1+ year of experience with BFT consensus algorithms, P2P networking, and state replication

Nice To Haves

Deep experience with Cosmos SDK and CometBFT. Comfort building custom modules and modifying consensus logic, not just deploying smart contracts
Pedersen Commitments (Homomorphic encryption properties)
Zero-Knowledge Proofs (specifically Bulletproofs or Sigma protocols)
Demonstrated ability to read academic whitepapers/preprints and translate mathematical specifications into functioning code
Experience with MPC (Multi-Party Computation) or Verifiable Secret Sharing (VSS) schemes
Familiarity with the Ristretto255 curve or libraries like gnark-crypto
Background in FinTech, payment systems, or high-frequency trading platforms
Understanding of the Account Model vs. UTXO Model trade-offs in privacy-preserving ledgers

Responsibilities

Core Protocol Development: Architect and build a custom blockchain application using Go, Cosmos SDK, and CometBFT (Tendermint)
Cryptographic Implementation: Implement and optimize privacy-preserving primitives, specifically Pedersen Commitments and Bulletproofs (Range Proofs), ensuring no trusted setup is required
Consensus Customization: Engineer custom ABCI++ extensions (specifically PrepareProposal and Vote Extensions) to implement an on-chain Multi-Party Computation (MPC) mixing network.
State Machine Design: Design a custom KVStore state machine that manages homomorphic encrypted balances (Elliptic Curve points) instead of plaintext integers.
Performance Engineering: Optimize cryptographic operations (scalar multiplication, point addition) for low latency and high throughput in a distributed environment.
Auditing Infrastructure: Build secure off-chain query layers and "view key" mechanisms that allow for granular, permissioned regulatory auditing.