Lead Rust Engineer, Async VM | Careers

About Fermah

We are building the next-gen infrastructure to enable next-gen apps.

If you want to help define how workflows of onchain/offchain computation become easily programmable, you might be a fit for Fermah.

What We Do

Fermah is backed by a16z CSX, Lemniscap, and other Tier-1 VCs.

Fermah has built a universal proof market that is currently live on Testnet.

The proof market connects two sides: • Compute suppliers offering hardware, mostly GPUs. • Devs and protocols that need fast, reliable, and cost-efficient proof generation.

Fermah’s orchestration layer is to proof generation what Uber is to rides. It optimally matches proof requests to machines. In fact, the proof market works for any proof system and any chain – making it a universal proof market, proudly serving customers including ZKsync, Scroll, and Gateway, among others.

We are now expanding to build the next-gen infrastructure (in stealth). That means bringing net-new users to blockchain, enabling developers to build applications that finally reach their full potential (instead of a web3 facelift for an otherwise web2 product), and erasing the woes of today’s developers as they spend inordinate amounts of time stitching networks together rather than focusing on actual business logic.

If you want to be a part of a team that gets stuff done like it’s no one’s business, we’d like to talk.

About Our Founder

Fermah was founded by Dr. Vanishree Rao. She has been designing and building ZK for over 15 years and has a PhD in cryptography from UCLA.

The Role

We are looking for an experienced, motivated engineer to lead development of our core protocol and VM infrastructure. In this role, you will spearhead the design, implementation, and maintenance of high-performance, asynchronous VM and distributed-systems components in Rust (or comparable systems languages). You will own architecture and execution, work closely with the rest of the engineering team, and help guide the technical direction of our platform.

As an early team member, you will help shape not only the protocol, but also who we are as a company. You will have the freedom and autonomy to shape the direction of our culture and platform, contributing your ideas and expertise to drive its evolution. You will be challenged with complex problem-solving while ensuring that our systems are performant, secure, scalable, and maintainable.

Responsibilities

Lead architecture, design and implementation of core protocol and VM infrastructure (e.g. asynchronous VMs, eBPF / WASM or similar runtime environments, distributed systems).
Write, review and maintain high-quality, production-grade code in Rust.
Break down complex protocol & VM specifications into actionable tasks and deliverables.
Implement and maintain embedded storage / data layers (e.g. using RocksDB or other embedded databases) when required.
Design and implement asynchronous models / concurrency / actor-model / cooperative-scheduling solutions.
Build, maintain, and optimize peer-to-peer / distributed systems (networking, consensus layers, peer discovery, data propagation, etc.).
Ensure code quality and maintainability through rigorous code review, testing, and documentation.
Lead and mentor other engineers, guide career growth, contribute to architecture/design discussions, drive best practices in code quality, testing, performance
Collaborate with other engineers to align protocol design, infrastructure, and product requirements.
Drive delivery: ownership of deliverables, timelines, and architecture decisions: ensure stable, performant, and secure system releases.
Stay up-to-date with Web3, blockchain, security, and VM technologies; contribute to or interact with open source ecosystems and potentially upstream / community codebases (e.g. VMs or blockchain protocol repos).
Work in a fast-paced startup environment: adapt, iterate, take ownership of features end-to-end

What You Bring

Engineering experience: 5+ years of software engineering experience (C++, Rust or Go)
Strong command of Rust Language: Minimum 2 years of verifiable Rust professional experience
Verifiable commits and peer requests: Direct code contributions and deep knowledge of Anza's Agave (https://github.com/anza-xyz/agave) or Solana Firedancer (https://github.com/firedancer-io/firedancer)
Web3 Native: Degen with a deep understanding and passion for crypto and Web3. Proven track record working on highly technical crypto / Web3 projects (not memecoins/NFT pump-&-dumps; preferably protocol or infrastructure work)
VM Experience: Experience with virtual machines such as eBPF or WebAssembly
Experience building distributed systems and/or peer to peer systems
Experience with Asynchronous models (cooperative scheduling, actor model)
Experience with embedded databases such as RocksDB
Demonstrated leadership experience: previous experience leading development for engineering teams, mentoring teams, owning architecture and delivery.
Passion for Web3 / blockchain / decentralization; deep interest in protocol-level challenges; familiarity with open source culture and contributions.
Excellent problem-solving skills, self-starter mindset, ability to work independently and as part of a fast-paced, dynamic team.
Driven and Hungry: Demonstrated drive and ambition to achieve and exceed goals; thrives in and nurtures a culture of excellence and delivery.
Organizational Skills: Strong organizational and multitasking abilities.
Adaptable: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
Can-do Attitude: No task is too small or large. You’re not afraid to roll up your sleeves and do whatever needs to be done.

Nice-To-Haves

Experience with Anchor Framework and the Solana Program Library.
Familiarity with consensus protocols, cryptography, security audits, performance optimizations, benchmarking, and profiling.
Experience with build systems, CI/CD, automated testing, code instrumentation, and performance monitoring.
Familiarity with cloud / infrastructure tooling, containerization, orchestration, or hybrid environments.
Understanding of blockchain-specific challenges (e.g. chain data storage, peer-to-peer networking, state sync, runtime upgrades, backward compatibility, security, etc.).

Benefits

Competitive salary and equity
Generous vacation policy
Opportunity to work with a driven, talented, dedicated team that values collaboration, innovation, and making a strong positive impact
Culture built upon mutual respect, empathy, excellence and delivery

Apply to work with us

To apply, please fill out this form.