Rust Jobs for Rustaceans

About Dusk Labs
We are an engineering-driven development agency that helps early-stage companies kick-start their engineering operations, or mid-stage companies develop greenfield software projects.

We strive to maintain expertise at the cutting-edge of technology, take pride in doing high quality work, and differentiate ourselves from other development teams through our results.

You'll be a good fit if you are passionate about technology, like getting things done, learning new things, and working on interesting problems.

You'll also be a good fit if you like freedom. We respect your autonomy and don't have strict rules on how and when you work. We only have occasional meetings, and prefer asynchronous communication. When we do have meetings, we try to knock them out all at once to maximize uninterrupted work time.

If you've got a public record of your work, whether that's a body of talks and publications, or especially open source software projects, we'd love to see it. You'll go to the front of the interview line.

About the Role
We're seeking a lead software engineer to join the Dusk Labs engineering team and drive development of a high-performance perpetual futures cryptocurrency exchange. This role requires expertise in low-latency systems, distributed architectures, and financial infrastructure, combined with the ability to lead technical direction and mentor engineers.

You'll own the backend architecture end-to-end, making critical decisions on system design while building core components including the order matching engine, risk management systems, and real-time market data infrastructure.

You'll be on a high-performing team with other expert-level developers who are passionate about learning and working on interesting problems.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead technical direction for backend systems, making architectural decisions and setting engineering standards.
• Build high-performance, low-latency trading systems using Rust.
• Maintain the order matching engine with microsecond-level latency requirements.
• Build and maintain risk management systems including margin calculations, position tracking, and automated liquidations.
• Design database schemas and queries optimized for high-throughput financial data using PostgreSQL.
• Architect systems for global scale with high availability and fault tolerance.
• Mentor and guide other engineers through code review, pairing, and technical decision-making.
• Collaborate with front-end developers to design trading APIs and support their integration work.
• Implement security-critical systems for handling user funds and sensitive financial data.
• Write and maintain automated tests including unit, integration, and load tests.
• Stay current with DeFi protocols and emerging exchange architectures.

Requirements:

• Strong software engineering fundamentals with 6+ years of experience, including 2+ years in a lead or senior role.
• Strong expertise with Rust, particularly for high-performance systems.
• Experience building production financial or trading systems.
• Deep understanding of order book mechanics, matching algorithms, and market microstructure.
• Experience designing database schemas for financial data with ACID guarantees.
• Experiencing working with event-driven systems.
• Experience leading engineers through technical decisions, code review, and mentorship.
• Strong focus on writing secure code with understanding of financial system attack vectors.
• Knowledge of Linux systems administration and performance optimization.
• Familiarity with cryptocurrency ecosystems and DeFi protocols.
• Understanding of perpetual futures mechanics including funding rates, index prices, and liquidation cascades.
• Strong desire to learn and improve.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with order matching engine implementations or market making systems.
• Background in quantitative finance or algorithmic trading.
• Experience with blockchain integration for deposits, withdrawals, and settlements.
• Familiarity with Solidity or EVM-based smart contract interactions.
• Contributions to open source projects in Rust, DeFi, or trading infrastructure.
• Experience with WebSocket implementations and real-time bidirectional communication at scale.

Your Application
We understand the current job market is an employer's market, and that a lot of employers have been using AI tools to automatically sort through the large volume of applicants.

At Dusk Labs, each application is reviewed by a human. We do not want you to run your resume through AI to tailor it to the job post so it gets through automatic filters. We do not want you to pull keywords out of the job description to include in your answer to the screen questions.

If you apply like a human, your application will stand out significantly.

Compensation

• On-Target Earnings: $275,000/yr composed of $160,000 in base salary + $115,000 in performance-based bonuses.
• 6% 401(k) match.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance, 50% of the cost covered by us.
• $5,000 discretionary education budget to attend conferences, trainings, and workshops of your choosing. Covers your flight, hotel, per diem, and tickets.