Engineering Team Lead
Alpen Labs is building Alpen, an EVM-compatible validity rollup on Bitcoin (built on the Strata protocol) that enables direct Bitcoin programmability without wrapped tokens or custodians. It focuses on bringing native Bitcoin financial services—borrowing, earning interest, and spending in dollars—to BTC holders through a novel 1-of-N Bitcoin bridge and ZK proof verification, serving developers building financial applications and Bitcoin holders seeking non-custodial finance.
About Alpen Labs
Alpen Labs is a company building Bitcoin's own financial system through Alpen, a work-in-progress EVM-compatible validity rollup that settles transactions directly on Bitcoin. The protocol uses cryptographic validity proofs and a novel 1-of-N Bitcoin bridge (inspired by BitVM2, and evolving toward their own 'Glock' optimistic verifier) to let users borrow, earn interest, and spend in dollars against their BTC without wrapped tokens or custodians. Alpen Labs has pioneered research into ZK rollups on Bitcoin, novel ZK cryptography, and optimistic verifiers, and operates a public testnet (EVM-compatible, chain ID 8150) along with a block explorer, checkpoint explorer, faucet, and status dashboard. The company serves developers building BTC-native financial applications (wallets, DeFi protocols, stablecoins, credit markets) and works with ecosystem partners such as Anchorage Digital, Chaos Labs, LayerZero, Liquity, Paxos, and Valantis. It raised a strategic funding round in January 2025 and continues publishing research on Bitcoin credit markets, SNARK verification, and BitVM-based verification techniques.
Skills
About the Role
You will lead a high-impact engineering team focused on delivering production-grade infrastructure for a protocol. You will define technical direction, participate in architecture design, and contribute code across the stack. You will mentor engineers, run performance reviews, help hire and onboard new engineers, and ensure the team ships well-tested, well-documented, reliable production software on schedule.
Requirements
- 6+ years of software engineering experience
- 2+ years in a technical management role
- Experience with Rust
- Experience with EVM-compatible chains
- Experience with L2 technologies
- Strong experience with systems programming (Rust, Go, or similar) and/or full stack development
- Experience contributing to open source projects or building public-facing developer tools
- Experience leading projects from architecture to deployment in a fast-paced environment
- Experience with crypto, distributed systems, or infrastructure teams with focus on reliability and performance
- Understanding of developer experience and clear documentation
Responsibilities
- Lead and grow a team of engineers working on core infrastructure and protocol components
- Set and uphold engineering best practices including code quality, testing, and documentation
- Collaborate with product, protocol, and infra teams to define and deliver roadmap priorities
- Participate in architecture design and technical planning across the stack
- Provide regular coaching, support career growth, and lead performance reviews
- Help with hiring and onboarding new engineers
- Ensure the team is focused, unblocked, and shipping high-impact work on time