Systems Engineer

**About Unto Labs:** 

Unto Labs is a team of low-level engineers pushing distributed systems to the physical limits of modern hardware. We're reimagining blockchains, from core consensus primitives to performance-tuned networking stacks, in the service of global scale applications. Founded by Jump Crypto alumni and core contributors to the Solana protocol and the Firedancer client, we're tackling fundamental scalability, performance, and usability challenges in distributed ledgers. Our runtime conforms to the RISC-V specification—moving away from domain-specific VMs, DSLs, and bespoke compiler toolchains that limit developer and institutional adoption. Components are developed in C for maximal control over performance and resource usage.

**About The Role:**

We're seeking a Systems Engineer to take on the toughest challenges in distributed, high-performance computing. You'll be responsible for designing and building key parts of a base-layer blockchain, focused on juicing every last ounce of performance from commodity hardware. As a member of our fast-paced team, you'll work across the entire modern blockchain stack, including cryptography, consensus, distributed systems, and core kernels.

**Responsibilities:**

- Design systems for robust process isolation
- Build and test high-performance sub-systems from scratch in C, focusing on cryptographic operations, consensus mechanisms, and networking
- Implement advanced error correction and data recovery mechanisms
- Build and contribute to a suite of custom benchmarking and performance testing tools

**Qualifications:**

- Deep expertise in systems programming languages (C, C++, Rust) with a focus on performance optimization
- Experience and understanding of modern CPU architectures, memory hierarchies, and low-level optimization techniques
- Expertise in high-performance networking and protocol design
- Understanding of distributed systems and consensus algorithms

**Interesting problems you’ll tackle:**

- Building and testing high-performance subsystems in C (cryptographic routines, consensus primitives, networking protocols)
- Designing robust process isolation on modern CPU architectures and tile-based multi-core layouts
- Optimizing memory hierarchies, cache utilization, and low-level I/O for commodity servers

**Why join us?**

- Be at the forefront of blockchain technology, working on next-generation performance optimization
- Work with a team of experts with deep expertise in high-frequency trading and scaling developer ecosystems
- Shape the architecture of a system designed to process millions of transactions per second
- Access to cutting-edge hardware and development tools