Guardrail.ai

Founding Smart Contract Engineer at Guardrail.ai (San Francisco, CA)

Guardrail.ai· San Francisco, CA·

Role details

Work type
Hybrid
Employment
Full-Time

Job description

Mission

To secure the next generation of the web

For web3 to get into the hands of mainstream users, there cannot be exploits that steal millions of dollars in a single atomic transaction. The current exploit detection and response solutions are not sufficient to keep billions of dollars secure. We believe a combination of research-based and data-driven detection solutions and a novel response solution will leapfrog the industry forward in the battle against exploiters.

Responsibilities

  • Design and architect the first version of Guardrail’s security protocol
  • Build and secure production smart contracts powering customers and user transactions on the Guardrail protocol
  • Use industry best practices for smart contract mechanics, testing, and maintenance.
  • Collaborate with the founding team to integrate on-chain stack with the rest of our stack
  • Help shape the culture of the founding engineering team

Requirements

  • 3+ years of experience writing smart contracts for reputable protocols
  • Experience in Solidity and deep understanding of modern web3 technologies
  • Ability to think through edge cases and identify architectural issues
  • Security oriented mindset, thinking both as an attacker and defender
  • Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well in a team.
  • Ability to handle the breadth of scope as a founding member of the company

Why work at Guardrail.ai

  • Small, elite team: 8 employees working on frontier security problems; a mission-driven environment where each engineer meaningfully shapes the product.
  • High impact: Team protected $30B+ in onchain assets and saved customers a combined 9-figures in loss mitigation — an unusually direct line between your work and real money saved.
  • Now backed by Rain's scale: After the 2026 acquisition, the team has the resources and distribution of a global payments platform while retaining its security-specialist focus.
  • Learning surface: Opportunity to work across protocol design, AI/ML behavioral detection, real-time systems, and multi-chain infrastructure.
  • Strong security-culture credibility: Track record spans resolving 200+ incidents and partnering with teams from day-one launches to IPOs.
  • Work policy/perks: Remote/hybrid policy and compensation details are not publicly available; open roles are listed on the company's careers page jobs.gem.com.

Application questions