Protocol Security Engineer

Protocol Security Engineer – Matter Labs

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At Matter Labs, we believe freedom drives progress and prosperity. Our mission is to advance freedom for all — through mass adoption of crypto. We are building ZKsync, a verifiable blockchain network secured by zero‑knowledge proofs. Backed by over $250 million in funding, we move fast, ship often, and judge ourselves by the results we create. We have more than 20 teams building custom ZKsync chains on our network, including , Abstract, Lens, Deutsche Bank, Xsolla, and others.

We are seeking a Protocol Security Engineer to join our Security Team. This role blends hands‑on security work with the opportunity to influence protocol security from the earliest stages of development. You’ll focus on safeguarding ZKsync’s core components—smart contracts, ZK circuits, and blockchain nodes—while staying at the forefront of security research and industry best practices. This role is ideal for someone who is curious, thrives on breaking systems, and wants to apply that mindset ethically in a high‑stakes environment.

• Intentionally breaking things — conducting threat modeling and internal reviews of Solidity contracts, blockchain state transition functions (Rust), and other critical systems
• Tracking the latest hacks, exploits, and attack vectors across the industry, and translating lessons learned into actionable security improvements
• Embedding security best practices across development teams and influencing secure design
• Taking ownership of protocol components with a focus on secure architecture and implementation
• Participating in security investigations and incident response, often under time-sensitive and high-pressure conditions

• Curiosity & hacker mindset — you want to know how things break, not just how they work
• Strong security instincts with the ability to anticipate adversarial behaviors
• Familiarity with recent security incidents in the blockchain space and knowledge of prevention techniques
• Practical experience with Solidity smart contracts, ZK circuits, or core blockchain protocols (preferred but not required)
• Comfort with protocol-level debugging and root-cause analysis
• Proficiency in strongly typed languages (e.g., C++, Scala, Go);
  Rust and Solidity are our primary languages, but prior experience with them is not mandatory
• Deep understanding of algorithms, data structures, and their computational/memory complexities
• Experience implementing data structures and algorithms from scratch
  
  Fluent written and spoken English

• Remote‑first: work wherever you’re most effective; optional travel to team or industry events. Ideally East Coast or European time zone.
• Freedom & ownership culture: no time tracking, minimum bureaucracy—only results matter.

• Competitive compensation, equity, and token package
• Premium health, dental, and vision coverage
• 16 weeks paid parental leave
• Flexible paid time off plus company‑wide closure weeks
• $2 000 equipment stipend & $300 monthly co‑working allowance

Entry level

Full‑time

Information Technology

Technology, Information and Internet

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