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Senior Protocol Engineer, IBC
Interchain Foundation
Berlin, Germany
Posted on May 14, 2025
We are joining the Interchain Foundation, and are rebranding Skip to Interchain Inc., as we become the ICF’s main development, product, and growth subsidiary! Read the announcement to learn more.
Who we are
📌 Interchain Inc (formerly, Skip) leads development for the Cosmos Hub, ecosystem, and stack -- the leading platform for building sovereign, interoperable blockchains. We're dedicated to offering developers full-stack programmability, complete ownership of their economics, and best-in-class distribution to users everywhere.
Our mission is to build a more free, more fair internet with the Cosmos platform at the core. The best teams already build with Cosmos across every category: defi (dYdX, Osmosis, Injective), infrastructure (Babylon, Celestia, Initia), Depin/AI (Akash, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, Allora), privacy (Nillion, Penumbra), and many more. We want to help these teams and many more help bring the values of sovereignty and decentralization to the rest of the internet by developing the Cosmos stack and hub.
We focus on hiring the core team and senior talent to work together in person in NYC to build a collaborative and supportive culture. But we’re still open to hiring best-in-class remote talent anywhere within 6 hours of the NYC timezone.
Core team member responsibilities
- Work to solve hard technical problems at the cutting edge of blockchain research alongside the founders.
- Be empowered to make bold technical and strategic decisions.
- Play a critical role in determining the people we hire, our culture, our engineering practices, and the products we ship.
How we work
- We value ambition, work ethic, and m (slope) over prestige, accomplishments, and y-intercept. - This means initiative, self development, and adaptability are non-negotiable, even for the most experienced candidates.
- We value thoughtful and contentious dialogue over siloed and unilateral decision-making.
- We value acknowledging uncertainty/weakness and seeking support over unabated confidence and solo performances.
- We’re obsessive about documenting everything, learning, and shipping as fast as possible with short feedback cycles.
Interchain Inc is committed to inclusion.
Interchain Inc. is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourages individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to apply. We believe the purpose of crypto is to expand who has agency in society, which starts at home, by empowering people with diverse gender identities, ethnic backgrounds, and life experiences within our own organization. Interchain Inc. offers dedicated mentorship to support personal growth and a bright career in crypto.
Benefits
✈️ 18 days of paid leave
🧑⚕️ Premium health insurance
🏦 Competitive regional compensation and token compensation
📁 Office space and accommodations for remote work
👉 We’re open to arranging paid work trials with potential hires because we think interviews give a very limited view of candidates and the company.
Description
We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to develop, maintain and contribute to the core protocol of the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.
Our ideal candidate is passionate about blockchain technology and deeply committed to the vision of interoperability. They are a self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, innovative environment and are eager to learn and continuously improve their skills. They take ownership of their work, going above and beyond to deliver exceptional results while upholding the highest standards of security and software practices.
The ideal candidate is also someone who is exceptionally detail-oriented, while still valuing customer input deeply and enjoy weaving the intricacies of protocol development with real user and business needs. This role is for someone who wants to be part of building secure, reliable solutions that has significant impact.
IBC is to web3 what TCP/IP is to the internet i.e a core building block that is open and trustless. This is a chance to be part of building something truly transformational: a core piece of technology that will power a new and better internet and that is at the basis of the differentiation of Cosmos vs any other crypto ecosystem.
Role Responsibilities
- Build and maintain the IBC protocol to enable seamless blockchain interoperability
- Develop and improve to the IBC protocol specification itself
- Serve as the expert on and primary owner of major components of IBC (e.g. IBC-go, IBC-solidity, light clients, etc)
- Mentor and level up fellow engineers and contribute to a culture of continuous learning.
- Implement rigorous security measures and testing practices to ensure protocol robustness.
Qualifications
- Required
- 5+ years of software engineering experience.
- Deep knowledge of blockchain technology.
- Experience in some form of protocol development.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Bonus
- Familiarity with Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocols.
- Expertise in protocols with cross-chain or interoperability concerns.
- Proficiency in Go, Rust, Solidity, and/or Solana programs.
- Demonstrated contributions to open-source projects., especially blockchain projects.