Palette Labs, Inc. · 3 weeks ago
Founding Protocol Engineer
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level
5+ years expPalette Labs is building a decentralized protocol for commerce, focusing on food delivery. The Founding Protocol Engineer will architect and implement core smart contracts and data models to support a permissionless commerce ecosystem.
Information Technology & Services
Responsibilities
Design and implement core smart contracts (EVM or other chains) that encode key protocol logic — incentives, identity, attribution, settlement, and verifiable event streams
Develop verifiable data models and cryptographic proofs, enabling trust-minimized coordination between restaurants, drivers, consumers, and operators
Design and own onchain/offchain bridging and data attestation pipelines (e.g., signatures, proofs, optimistic verification, sequencing, indexing)
Establish protocol-level standards for data structures, state transitions, event logs, and cross-ecosystem interoperability
Collaborate with backend and product teams to translate business logic into decentralized primitives that are secure, upgradeable, and verifiable
Lead protocol security practices, including formal reasoning, audits, fuzzing, threat modeling, and designing failure-safe upgrade patterns
Prototype and evaluate emerging web3 infrastructure, including L2s, DA layers, indexing frameworks, wallets, and key management tools
Define long-term protocol architecture, including economic incentives, governance considerations, and modularity for new use cases beyond food delivery
Mentor early engineers on decentralized design patterns, smart contract engineering, and protocol-level decision making
Qualification
Required
5+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2+ years of production web3 or smart contract engineering
Deep expertise in EVM development (Solidity, Vyper, or equivalent), including security best practices, testing, gas optimization, and upgrade patterns
Experience designing verifiable, high-integrity systems using cryptographic primitives (signatures, Merkle structures, proofs, etc.)
Strong understanding of protocol architecture — state machines, sequencing, event logs, indexing, and data availability considerations
Hands-on experience building production-grade onchain/offchain systems, including interactions between smart contracts and backend services
Proven ability to design from first principles, especially when standard solutions don't exist
Strong product instincts with the ability to simplify complex mechanisms into intuitive, usable primitives
Experience collaborating on high-level protocol design, not just contract implementation
Preferred
Experience with mechanism design, incentive systems, or token-driven ecosystems (does not need to be DeFi)
Familiarity with L2 architectures, including optimistic rollups, ZK rollups, DA layers, or modular execution environments
Experience building verifiable offchain compute or trust-minimized APIs (e.g., oracles, attestation frameworks, optimistic systems)
Knowledge of indexing and data pipelines (The Graph, Subgraphs, custom indexers, Firehose, etc.)
Experience with event-driven backend systems, distributed systems, or consensus protocols
Contributions to open-source web3 projects or standards (ERCs, EIPs, CIP/CAIPs, etc.)
Interest in decentralized commerce, marketplace design, or reputation systems
Benefits
100% employer‑covered premium options for Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance for employees.
Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO)
Company
Palette Labs, Inc.
Palette Labs, Inc. is a multidisciplinary team of engineers, economists and researchers working to make the economy work better for people.
2-10 employeesFunding
Current Stage
Early StageLeadership Team
Michael Perhats
CEO
Company data provided by crunchbase