Protocol Engineer (Remote - Europe)
- Greater London
- Permanent
- Permanent IT & Technical
- LTf27-1649546
- 27/02/2026
Protocol Engineer (Remote – Europe)
Salary: Negotiable
Some engineers build apps.
Others build the rails that everything else runs on.
Our client, a well-backed, rapidly growing independent research and advisory firm at the forefront of Crypto and MEV, is hiring a Protocol Engineer to operate deep in the stack.
This is where zero-knowledge infrastructure meets financial primitives.
Where design decisions shape incentives.
Where performance and security are non-negotiable.
The Role
You’ll design and build next-generation decentralised systems, specifically order book–based exchange and settlement protocols, operating at the intersection of ZK and high-performance blockchain infrastructure.
This is not surface-level smart contract work.
This is protocol logic, cryptoeconomic modelling, and production-grade engineering.
What You’ll Be Doing
You’ve worked on real financial systems.
You understand that adversaries are intelligent and incentives matter.
Core requirements:
Bonus Points
Certus Recruitment Group is a well-established and experienced specialist consultancy providing GTM and Technical recruitment services. We serve the technology sector across the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia.
Salary: Negotiable
Some engineers build apps.
Others build the rails that everything else runs on.
Our client, a well-backed, rapidly growing independent research and advisory firm at the forefront of Crypto and MEV, is hiring a Protocol Engineer to operate deep in the stack.
This is where zero-knowledge infrastructure meets financial primitives.
Where design decisions shape incentives.
Where performance and security are non-negotiable.
The Role
You’ll design and build next-generation decentralised systems, specifically order book–based exchange and settlement protocols, operating at the intersection of ZK and high-performance blockchain infrastructure.
This is not surface-level smart contract work.
This is protocol logic, cryptoeconomic modelling, and production-grade engineering.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Designing and implementing order book-based exchange and settlement systems
- Building zero-knowledge infrastructure using zkVMs (Succinct SP1, RISC Zero)
- Writing high-performance Rust across protocol and infrastructure components
- Designing incentive mechanisms and modelling adversarial behaviour
- Developing Solidity interfaces between on-chain and off-chain systems
- Contributing to security audits and formal protocol reviews
- Collaborating closely with research, engineering and product teams
You’ve worked on real financial systems.
You understand that adversaries are intelligent and incentives matter.
Core requirements:
- Strong Rust expertise
- Deep understanding of DeFi / financial primitives
- Experience with ZK systems (SP1, RISC Zero or similar)
- Cryptoeconomic intuition
- Solidity proficiency
- Enterprise-grade engineering mindset
Bonus Points
- zk circuit development (Halo2, Plonky3)
- Formal verification or fuzz testing
- Open-source contributions
- CLOB / matching engine experience
- CeFi or DeFi trading background
- Remote anywhere in Europe
- Deep protocol-level ownership
- High-calibre research-driven environment
- Backed and scaling
- Real impact on next-gen decentralised infrastructure
Certus Recruitment Group is a well-established and experienced specialist consultancy providing GTM and Technical recruitment services. We serve the technology sector across the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia.