---
title: 'Software Project Manager at Obsidian Systems'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-project-manager-obsidian-systems-united-states-us-east-coast-dr7ja4swdakr'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Software Project Manager at Obsidian Systems

- **Company:** Obsidian Systems
- **Location:** United States / US East Coast
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-08-25
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/obsidiansystems/8d2fcabe-a509-4375-8791-8f2956297569

## Job description

Obsidian Systems is a software engineering consultancy that builds production systems for capital markets and other regulated industries. Our clients include market infrastructure providers, national exchanges, and global financial institutions. Much of our work today centers on the Canton Network, the privacy-enabled blockchain adopted by major capital markets institutions, where Obsidian is one of the most experienced engineering firms in the ecosystem.

We're a remote-first, globally distributed team that values ownership, curiosity, and clear communication. We believe the best ideas come from people who ask difficult questions, take responsibility for their work, and collaborate openly to solve challenging problems.

We're looking for a Software Project Manager to lead the delivery of complex software engineering engagements from initial scope through production delivery.

You'll sit at the intersection of our clients and engineering teams, creating clarity around what we're building, why we're building it, what could prevent us from delivering it, and what needs to happen next.

## About The Role

As a Software Project Manager, you will own the day-to-day delivery of technical client engagements across blockchain, financial infrastructure, and distributed systems.

You'll work closely with software engineers, technical leads, clients, and internal stakeholders to translate business objectives into executable delivery plans, manage scope and dependencies, surface risks early, and keep projects moving toward successful outcomes.

You won't be expected to write production code, but you will need technical understanding to engage meaningfully with engineers, understand system dependencies and trade-offs, ask the right questions, and communicate technical constraints clearly to clients.

Our projects often involve emerging technologies, evolving requirements, multiple stakeholders, and problems that do not have obvious solutions. You'll need to be comfortable creating structure where it doesn't yet exist and making ambiguity visible rather than allowing it to become delivery risk.

## Key Responsibilities

- Own client software projects from initial planning and kickoff through delivery and project close.
- Translate project scope and client objectives into clear milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and execution plans.
- Partner closely with engineering leads to understand technical requirements, architecture decisions, implementation dependencies, and delivery risks.
- Maintain a clear and accurate view of project health across scope, timeline, resources, risks, and dependencies.
- Identify delivery risks early and drive concrete mitigation plans before they become blockers.
- Facilitate project kickoffs, planning sessions, status meetings, retrospectives, and other delivery ceremonies where useful.
- Ensure engineers have the context, decisions, requirements, and stakeholder access they need to execute effectively.
- Communicate project status, risks, trade-offs, dependencies, and changes clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Protect engineering teams from unnecessary churn while maintaining strong, trusted client relationships.
- Escalate issues proactively with context, options, and recommended next steps rather than simply reporting problems.
- Continuously improve project management processes, tooling, documentation, and delivery practices across Obsidian.

## What We Are Looking For

- 5+ years of experience in software project management, technical project management, delivery management, or a comparable role.
- Demonstrated experience owning the delivery of complex software engineering projects from planning through completion.
- Experience working directly with software engineers and technical leads in a software development environment.
- Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle, including planning, development, testing, release, and production delivery.
- Ability to understand technical concepts, dependencies, constraints, and trade-offs without needing to be a software engineer.
- Excellent organization and attention to detail without losing sight of the overall project outcome.
- Comfortable operating with ambiguity and creating structure in environments where processes or requirements are still evolving.
- Experience working effectively with distributed or remote teams.

Preferred Requirements:

- Experience managing projects within a software consultancy, professional services firm, or client-facing engineering organization.
- Experience delivering projects in blockchain, distributed systems, fintech, financial services, or capital markets.
- Familiarity with digital assets, blockchain infrastructure, or the Canton Network ecosystem.
- Experience delivering software into regulated or enterprise environments.
- Familiarity with various delivery practices including Agile, while understanding when processes need to adapt to the project rather than the other way around.

## How We Work

At Obsidian Systems, we believe great work comes from thoughtful people who take ownership, communicate openly, and enjoy solving difficult problems together. These principles guide how we work every day.

Own Your Work, Protect Your Team

- We take full ownership of our responsibilities while supporting the people around us. We believe accountability creates trust, and clear ownership allows teams to move quickly without stepping on one another's work.

Don't Settle for Superficial

- We aim to understand problems deeply rather than treating symptoms. We ask questions, challenge assumptions, and make unknowns explicit so we can build durable solutions instead of temporary fixes.

Be Honest Proactively

- We communicate openly and early. Raising risks before they become problems helps our team and our clients make better decisions. We value transparency over avoiding uncomfortable conversations.

Get to It

- Many of the challenges we solve have never been solved before. We don't wait for perfection; we start, learn, iterate, and move forward. Progress comes from taking the next concrete step. Project management at Obsidian is about enabling progress, not adding unnecessary process. If you're excited by solving difficult delivery problems, working closely with exceptional engineers, and helping build the next generation of financial market infrastructure, you'll feel at home at Obsidian.

## About Obsidian Systems

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Obsidian Systems is a software engineering consultancy that builds complex, high-assurance systems using advanced tools like Haskell and Nix for clients in blockchain, finance, healthcare, and other demanding domains.
- **Entity Type**: Private (bootstrapped; no disclosed funding rounds)
- **Headquarters**: New York, NY, USA
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Ali Abrar and Ryan Trinkle

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Blockchain, finance, healthcare, government, transportation, education, infrastructure
- **Target customers**: B2B – enterprises, blockchain foundations, startups, and research institutions that need custom, high-reliability software
- **Mission or purpose**: “To raise the ceiling of what software engineering can do” by applying powerful ideas from programming languages, formal systems, and reproducible infrastructure to production environments.

## Products & Services
- **Custom Software Development**: End-to-end services including product definition, UI/UX design, development, deployment, and operations support; platforms range from web and mobile to hardware wallets and blockchain validators.
- **Kiln**: A GUI block validator and monitoring app for the Tezos blockchain.
- **Tezos Baking & Wallet Applications**: Hardware wallet apps (Ledger) for Tezos and Sui blockchains.
- **Nix (open source)**: A package manager and build system used internally to ensure reproducible, deterministic builds across all projects.
- **Project Management & Engineering Leadership**: Obsidian provides engineering management, risk communication, and technical leadership on complex engagements.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: No publicly disclosed revenue; estimated to be a profitable consultancy with high-profile clients.
- **Notable Clients and Partners**: Tezos Foundation (built Kiln, Tezos Baking/Wallet apps), IOHK (Cardano infrastructure), Groq (hardware/software support), Formation (marketing analytics), CBMM (brain research), law enforcement screening tool for mental health diversion.
- **Growth Signals**: Continued work on major blockchain and AI hardware projects; active hiring for Software Engineer and Software Project Manager roles (as of mid-2025).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep Haskell & Formal Methods Expertise**: Obsidian’s stack choice (Haskell, Nix) enables correctness guarantees and security that are difficult to achieve with mainstream languages.
- **Reproducible Infrastructure**: Nix guarantees that every build, demo, and deployment is deterministic, eliminating “it works on my machine” problems.
- **Client Track Record**: Successfully delivered high-stakes projects for Tezos, Groq, IOHK, and others, often at the bleeding edge of blockchain and systems programming.
- **10-Week Delivery Model**: A disciplined process from ambiguous brief to production software, with clear timelines and proactive risk communication.

## Strategic Focus
- **Deepening Haskell & Nix Ecosystem**: Investing in open source stewardship and tooling improvements.
- **Blockchain & Decentralized Systems**: Continued work on proof-of-stake blockchains, ledger apps, and smart contract infrastructure.
- **High-Assurance Systems**: Expanding into regulated industries (healthcare, finance, government) where correctness and security are critical.

## Why Work Here
- **Engineering Culture**: Values depth, precision, intellectual honesty, and ownership. Engineers own their work completely and are expected to understand root causes rather than treat symptoms.
- **AI Policy**: Engineers may use AI tooling but are fully responsible for the output—no outsourcing judgment.
- **Work Environment**: Main office at 19 W 21st St #503, New York, NY 10010. Preference not stated as fully remote, but team likely works onsite/hybrid.
- **Interesting Problems**: Clients bring unsolved, novel challenges; engineers get to work on everything from hardware wallets to real-time analytics for brain research.
- **Open Source Commitment**: Contributing to and stewarding libraries in Haskell and Nix communities.

## Sources
1. [Obsidian Systems website](https://obsidian.systems/)
2. [Obsidian Systems /careers](https://obsidian.systems/careers)
3. [Obsidian Systems /about](https://obsidian.systems/about)
4. [Obsidian Systems /jobs](https://obsidian.systems/jobs) (redirects to Ashby)
5. [Obsidian Systems jobs on Ashby](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/obsidiansystems)

## Other roles at Obsidian Systems

- [Chief Financial Officer (CFO)](https://feeny.ai/job/chief-financial-officer-cfo-obsidian-systems-united-states-us-east-coast-t3a52q8s12j1) — United States / US East Coast
- [Staff Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-accountant-obsidian-systems-united-states-us-east-coast-4s1mtn9878k9) — United States / US East Coast
- [Business Development Manager (EST)](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-manager-est-obsidian-systems-canada-us-east-coast-gft0s16d754e) — Canada / US East Coast