Senior Software Engineer, Block Production

Who We Are

Anza is a Solana R&D lab pushing the boundaries of blockchain performance and scalability. Anza was founded by experienced executives and core engineers solving the toughest problems in Web3. Crypto ecosystems rely on robust protocols, and we believe those are best built out in the open, with multiple contributors. We pioneer advanced solutions to meet the evolving demands of decentralized applications.

The Role

As a Software Engineer specializing in block production, scheduling, and verification, you will play a critical role in fortifying Anza's Agave client and the broader Solana network. This team owns the core pipeline between networking and the runtime, responsible for processing ingested transactions and coordinating block-production and verification.

Your work will directly contribute to the efficiency and reliability of our blockchain infrastructure, ensuring seamless and timely block production, scheduling, and verification. You will focus on optimizing the processes that underpin the generation and propagation of blocks, ensuring they are secure, performant, and scalable to meet the demands of future growth.

Responsibilities

• Develop and Optimize Block Production: Design, implement, and optimize the mechanisms for block production to enhance the throughput and stability of the Solana network.
• Efficient Scheduling: Develop and refine scheduling mechanisms for both block production and block verification, enabling efficient transaction processing, fair resource allocation, and predictable performance.
• Ensure Security and Integrity: Identify and mitigate potential security vulnerabilities within the pipeline, ensuring robust protection against emerging threats.
• Scalability and Performance: Work on improving the scalability of the pipeline to handle increasing transaction volumes and validator participation without compromising on performance.
• Testing and Validation: Create and execute comprehensive tests to validate the reliability and efficiency of the block production, block verification, and scheduling mechanisms, including stress tests, fault injection, and performance benchmarking.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including core protocol engineers, security experts, and infrastructure teams, to ensure the seamless integration and functioning of the block production components.
• Documentation and Code Review: Maintain thorough documentation of the block production and scheduling protocols and conduct peer code reviews to uphold high standards of code quality and consistency.
• Shared-Memory Systems: Design and maintain high-performance shared-memory interfaces between scheduling and execution stages, enabling low-latency coordination and efficient data movement across the validator pipeline.

Requirements

What You'll Bring

• Experience: A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience and 3+ years of hands-on experience with core infrastructure software and distributed systems.
• Technical Expertise: Strong proficiency in systems programming languages such as Rust, C or C++. Experience with distributed systems, and blockchain technology is highly desirable.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Ability to analyze complex systems, identify potential issues, and develop effective solutions.
• Security Mindset: Knowledge of common security threats and best practices in securing block production processes.
• Performance Optimization: Experience with performance profiling and optimization techniques.
• Collaboration and Communication: Excellent teamwork and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with Linux, systems automation tools, and systems architecture.
• Deep understanding of architecture and principles underlying distributed systems.
• A knack for designing secure protocols, software, and algorithms that minimize trust.