Employment: Full-time via MLabs
Engagement: Contracted to a UAE-based enterprise blockchain / fintech client
Location: Remote (Eastern Europe / MENA / India preferred)
MLabs is hiring a Senior Protocol Engineer to contribute to the core infrastructure of a custom Layer-1 blockchain ecosystem supporting enterprise-grade financial systems. You will work at the protocol layer, contributing to consensus mechanisms, node architecture, networking, and system-level performance. This role requires deep distributed systems expertise and hands-on experience working on blockchain infrastructure rather than application-layer smart contracts. The ideal candidate is comfortable operating in performance-critical, security-sensitive environments and contributing to protocol evolution discussions.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement core blockchain protocol components
- Contribute to consensus performance, scalability, and reliability improvements
- Optimize node performance and system-level efficiency
- Work on P2P networking and state synchronization mechanisms
- Identify and mitigate protocol-level vulnerabilities
- Collaborate with smart contract, infrastructure, and backend teams
- Participate in architecture reviews and protocol evolution discussions
Requirements
- 5+ years of software engineering experience
- Strong background in distributed systems
- Experience working on Layer-1 blockchain infrastructure
- Proficiency in Rust, Go, C++, or similar systems-level language
- Strong understanding of consensus mechanisms (PoS, BFT, etc.)
- Experience working in high-performance, production environments
Preferred
- Experience contributing to open-source blockchain projects
- Experience working on validator or node implementations
- Experience with networking protocols and P2P systems
- Experience in fintech or regulated environments
- Experience working in distributed remote teams
Benefits
- Competitive international compensation
- Remote-first work model
- Long-term engagement on an enterprise blockchain platform
- Opportunity to work on core protocol architecture
- Career growth within MLabs’ global engineering network