Senior Backend Engineer at Ellipsis Labs (New York, NY)
Ellipsis Labs· New York, NY· $170k–$250k·
Role details
Job description
Ellipsis Labs is a profitable, venture-backed New York-based startup building sustainable and efficient DeFi protocols on high-throughput decentralized infrastructure. Our long-term goal is to build a better financial system.
Our flagship product, Phoenix Perpetuals, brings professional-grade perpetual futures to Solana. Building on our experience developing efficient markets, Ellipsis Labs also operates SolFi, a proprietary automated market maker that provides efficient liquidity for key trading pairs. Our foundational product, Phoenix Legacy, is a limit order book on the Solana blockchain that established our expertise in operating high-performance markets. Combined, these products have facilitated over $285B in trading volume across Solana markets.
Ellipsis Labs is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to join our team. As an early-stage startup, we appreciate bright generalists who can iterate and ship quickly. In this role, you will:
- Build and maintain scalable production services. We currently support thousands of QPS, and future systems will need to handle at least another order of magnitude.
- Implement systems to monitor performance at the micro- and nano-second level
- Drive ambitious engineering initiatives (for example, realtime data indexing at scale) from inception to completion: specification, architecture, implementation, testing, monitoring, and maintenance
REQUIRED
- 3+ years of experience building and maintaining production-grade software systems (preferably in Rust, C++, C, or Golang), with high-quality and well-documented production code
- 3+ years of experience with Unix systems
- Experience working with cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS
- Ability to make informed engineering decisions based on relevant business context
- A demonstrated track record of high agency, willingness to dive into unfamiliar technical and non-technical areas, and a team-first attitude
- Passion for decentralized finance
PREFERRED
- Experience working with blockchain technology, specifically Solana
- Experience in quant trading or fintech
- Proficiency in Rust
Why work at Ellipsis Labs
- Culture: In-person, collaborative, and mission-driven. Office in New York (Civic Center). Team is described as “work hard, build fast” with regular team offsites and social activities.
- Compensation: Above-market salaries (e.g., $150K–$250K base for engineers), generous equity, performance bonuses, and 401(k) matching.
- Benefits: Full health/dental/vision coverage (90% of premiums for you and family), unlimited PTO, daily lunch/dinner at office, commuter benefits, FSAs, and conference travel stipends.
- Engineering focus: High autonomy, low process—results matter. Interview process is transparent: recruiter call → live coding → take-home project → full-day onsite (coding, system design, bug squash, culture fit).
- Growth opportunity: Joining early-stage team with strong funding and clear product-market fit; chance to shape DeFi infrastructure from the ground up.