Senior Software Engineer (Bitcoin Core & Rust) - Bitcoin DeFi

Location: Greater London, England, United Kingdom

3 weeks ago – Be among the first 25 applicants

IOG is a technology company focused on Blockchain research and development. We are renowned for our scientific approach to blockchain development, emphasizing peer‑reviewed research and formal methods to ensure security, scalability, and sustainability. Our projects include decentralized finance (DeFi), governance, and identity management, aiming to advance the capabilities and adoption of blockchain technology globally.

Bitcoin DeFi is about unlocking real utility for the world’s most trusted digital asset without ever compromising user control. For developers and innovators, this means finding a way to use Bitcoin in decentralized finance without forcing holders to hand their BTC to a third party. Until now, most attempts at Bitcoin DeFi have relied on “wrapped” tokens that essentially represent a promise – you send your BTC away and trust someone else to issue a proxy token on another chain. In all these custodial models, users effectively give up custody of their bitcoin to an intermediary in exchange for a tokenized representation. This status quo runs counter to Bitcoin’s core ethos of self‑sovereignty and security.

As a Senior Software Engineer with Rust expertise and Bitcoin Core experience, you’ll sit at the forefront of redefining DeFi on Bitcoin. You will contribute directly to groundbreaking product development while driving engineering best practices that set new standards across our organization. This role is not just about writing code—it’s about solving some of the most complex challenges in Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. You’ll serve as a mentor, a problem solver, and a technical leader: simplifying complexity, designing scalable systems, and creating software that matters.

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• Drive high‑quality engineering practices and proactively overcome system complexities.
  
• Work with Bitcoin while delivering new solutions in Rust.
  
• Debug and resolve issues across distributed systems while promoting observability and reliability.
  
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams to enable iterative and scalable development.
  
• Lead technical design, code reviews, and integration—including third‑party software components.
  
• Advance Bitcoin DeFi development through innovations using Taproot, Bitcoin Script, and BitVM (with potential for visible public contributions).
  
• Act as a go‑to expert for Bitcoin and related topics.
  
• Mentor and guide engineers, inspiring technical excellence.
  
• Produce concise, maintainable documentation to support shared knowledge.
  
• Be proactive and require minimal supervision or mentoring to complete tasks.
  
• Ensure reliability of deployed products, including availability for critical support when needed.
  

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• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with 3+ years of production Rust or C++ development. (We code Rust)
  
• Proven experience contributing to Bitcoin Core or related public Bitcoin projects.
  
• Strong understanding of Taproot, Bitcoin Script, and ideally, BitVM.
  
• Expertise in Rust ownership model, lifetimes, concurrency, and multithreading.
  
• Deep knowledge of peer‑to‑peer networking, distributed systems, and cryptographic libraries.
  
• Experience with modern paradigms: multi‑party computation and zero‑knowledge (ZK) is a big plus.
  
• Comfort working with web services, REST APIs, HTTP protocols.
  
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), Docker, Kubernetes, and scalable architectures.
  
• Practical experience with Agile methodologies, CI/CD pipelines, and test‑driven development.
  
• Skilled with Git and collaborative workflows.
  

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• Remote work
  
• Laptop reimbursement
  
• New starter package to buy hardware essentials (headphones, monitor, etc)
  
• Learning & Development opportunities
  
• Competitive PTO
  

At IOG, we value diversity and always treat all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.