Staff Backend Engineer, Historical APIs

Helius

6d • Remote

About The Position

We're looking for a Staff Backend Engineer who wants to own and evolve serious infrastructure. This isn't about executing on a roadmap - you'll define technical direction, architect systems that scale to multi-petabyte datasets, and set the standard for engineering excellence across the team. You'll work autonomously on high-impact problems, mentor senior engineers, and drive architectural decisions that shape the future of our infrastructure.

Requirements

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience with a track record of building large-scale, high-performance systems
• Deep expertise in Rust (strongly preferred), C++, or equivalent systems programming languages
• Proven experience designing and operating distributed systems, data pipelines, and performance-critical infrastructure at scale
• Expert-level knowledge of database internals, schema design, and optimization patterns for large datasets
• Demonstrated ability to architect simple, elegant solutions to complex technical problems
• Strong technical leadership and mentorship skills with the ability to influence without authority
• Track record of driving technical decisions and long-term architectural vision
• Relentless curiosity and a drive to push the boundaries of what's possible in performance engineering
• Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to thrive in a fast-moving, high-ownership environment

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Solana, blockchain, or web3 infrastructure
• Deep expertise with Postgres, ClickHouse, and/or RocksDB internals
• Previous experience in a Staff or Principal engineering role
• Open source contributions or technical writing that demonstrates depth of expertise

Responsibilities

• Architect and lead the development of ingestion, indexing, and retrieval systems across our archival infrastructure
• Drive technical strategy for API performance, reliability, and scalability across high-throughput services
• Design and optimize data models and query patterns for ClickHouse, Postgres, and RocksDB at scale
• Lead system design discussions and make architectural decisions on caching, distributed data patterns, and performance trade-offs
• Set standards for operational excellence, debugging methodologies, and performance profiling across production systems
• Mentor senior engineers and elevate the team's technical capabilities
• Partner with leadership on long-term technical roadmap and infrastructure investments
• Identify and drive solutions to complex, ambiguous problems that span multiple systems

Benefits

• High-impact work: Your code will power applications used by millions across the Solana ecosystem, including Coinbase, Jupiter, and Phantom
• Serious engineering: Build fast, reliable systems and user experiences across distributed infra, high-throughput backends, and modern frontend stacks
• Ownership & growth: Lead critical initiatives, influence architecture and product direction, and take on more responsibility as the company scales
• Remote-first flexibility: Work where you’re most effective with a flexible, fully distributed team
• Competitive comp & perks: Market-leading salary, meaningful equity, generous vacation, wellness budgets, and support for learning and travel
• Mission-driven team: Join ambitious builders who move fast, take ownership, and are shaping the future of decentralized apps

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees