What is FilOz: FilOz is a public goods L1 protocol design and development team in the Filecoin Network driving protocol improvement and security. As a team of 14 protocol researchers, engineers, TPMs, and community engineers (many who have been involved in the Filecoin community for 5+ years!), we have a strong commitment to the Filecoin network and to OSS development.

As a senior protocol engineer at FilOz you will…

• Design and Architect Protocol Solutions: Lead the design and development of new protocol features and enhancements for the Filecoin network—including improvements directly on the L1 protocol like storage proofs or consensus changes; or via smart contracts —ensuring a smooth balance between cutting-edge research and real-world product requirements.
• Develop and Maintain Critical Codebases: Work hands-on in multiple codebases (e.g., client nodes, the Filecoin Virtual Machine, builtin actors/precompiles) written in Rust and Go. You’ll integrate new protocol upgrades and improvements across these components while ensuring security and high performance.
• Write, Evaluate, and Maintain FIP Documents: Author and review Filecoin Improvement Proposals (FIPs), converting complex research and product requirements into clear, actionable specifications.
• Collaborate with Cross-Functional Teams: Engage regularly with researchers, product managers, and fellow engineers to translate nuanced protocol and product requirements into practical, deployable solutions in distributed systems.
• Champion Open Source and Community Engagement: Represent FilOz in the broader Filecoin and Web3 communities by actively contributing to open source projects, participating in community discussions, and adopting best practices in public, distributed software development.
• Drive Innovation in Data Storage: Play a key role in innovating around decentralized data storage, ensuring that our technical solutions support scalable, verifiable, and robust storage systems.

You May Be a Fit for This Role if You Have…

• Extensive Protocol and Systems Experience: 8+ years of engineering experience with distributed systems, especially in blockchain or permission-less environments. Proven track record designing and building blockchain nodes and client implementations and in general a solid understanding of distributed system principles and applications.
• Expertise in Product-Driven Protocol Design: Deep knowledge of building blockchain client software, including designing, testing, and deploying protocol updates. Experience writing technical specifications (FIPs or equivalent) and turning research insights into production-ready code.
• Proficiency in Production Systems Key Programming Languages: Significant contributions to in-use production systems: designing, implementing, testing, deploying, monitoring, and debugging.
• Familiarity with Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networks: Solid understanding of P2P networking principles, as well as a practical appreciation for the challenges and trade-offs when developing distributed blockchain nodes.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Comfort and experience working cross-functionally with researchers, product teams, and community contributors to drive the technical evolution of protocols.
• Passion for Data Storage and Decentralization: A genuine interest in decentralized data storage technologies and a commitment to the open source ethos.

Bonus Points if You Also Have…

• Content Addressing Mindset: Hands-on experience with or a strong working knowledge of content-addressable architectures (e.g., InterPlanetary Linked Data).
• Cryptography Knowledge: Familiarity with cryptographic primitives and protocols to help build verifiable systems, ensuring the integrity and security of decentralized implementations.
• Blockchain dApp/L2 Experience: Experience building blockchain smart contracts, dApps or L2s, with an understanding of the full web3 product lifecycle from development to user adoption.
• Additional Language/Tool Expertise: Familiarity with additional languages or ecosystems (such as EVM, WASM or Soliditys) that can complement your work on Filecoin’s multi-codebase environment.
• Community Leadership and Open Source Contributions: A notable record of contributing and/or maintaining in open source projects.

What’s it like to work at FilOz…

• Communal - We like to work and be together; we have fun. For much of the year that is in a remote context, but we cherish the periodic times we gather for colos and conferences.
• Builders can build here - No toes to worry about stepping on, no big permission blockers, no limitations on the tools you can use, minimal hierarchy, and transparent communication. See a problem - solve it!
• Meaningful work - While the tech is certainly very cool, we’ve chosen to give our work hours to this endeavor because we’re committed to charting a better course for the world around data ownership and sovereignty.
• Positioned with leverage - Given our deep experience with the project and high degree of trust from and connectedness with the ecosystem, we’re able to make amplified changes without many barriers.
• Insist on high standards - We don’t believe you have to be big (in size) to be great. The decisions we make each day, particularly with how we interact with each other and what we leave behind for our future selves or teammates are the less visible areas we push ourselves on.
• Fascinating technology - Being one of the first DePIN networks with one of the largest storage resources and practical usage of SNARKs is intellectually engaging. For example, ~100 GiB of chain state is used to prove ~1 EiB of data off chain (i.e., 1 byte of blockchain state for every 10 million bytes of data off chain).