Smart Contract Engineer

About the role

Category Labs is seeking a Smart Contract Engineer who will own the design and implementation of application-layer primitives that fully exploit the throughput and resource model of the Monad EVM client. The hire will craft high-assurance smart contracts that serve as the foundation for next-generation decentralized applications built directly on the Monad Layer

1. You will collaborate closely with external app and infrastructure teams to translate demanding use cases into robust, production-grade contract systems. This role requires a hands-on builder who leverages deep expertise in Solidity and low-level systems to solve nuanced problems at scale. You will be responsible for ensuring that every contract you deliver meets the highest standards of correctness, performance, and security. As an early contributor, you will directly influence the architectural direction of the ecosystem's smart contract landscape. Your work will be visible to the entire open-source community, as all deliverables are developed and released in the open.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Implement smart contracts that are well suited to the resources and throughput enabled by the Monad client built by Category Labs.
• Identify needs in the app developer ecosystem and address them through close collaboration with the core engineering team.
• Work directly with external application or infrastructure teams to unblock them with deep understanding of their domain AND the Category Labs client.
• Design and deploy new primitives that take advantage of the high-performance capabilities of the Monad EVM.
• Conduct in-depth code reviews to ensure architectural soundness and long-term maintainability of contract deployments.
• Optimize gas usage and execution flow to align with the parallel-execution model of the underlying runtime.
• Build comprehensive test suites and debugging workflows that increase confidence in contract behavior under edge conditions.
• Translate protocol-level requirements into clear specifications for application developers.
• Participate in threat modeling sessions to anticipate and mitigate potential attack vectors before mainnet deployment.
• Contribute to open-source tooling and documentation that supports the broader ecosystem of Monad developers.
• Liaise with research and protocol teams to align application patterns with upcoming protocol upgrades.
• Mentor junior engineers on best practices for secure and efficient smart contract development.
• Track industry developments and integrate novel patterns that enhance the capabilities of on-chain applications.
• Ensure all deliverables adhere to the open-by-default philosophy by publishing artifacts in publicly accessible repositories.

Requirements

• You have at least 4 years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years of experience writing smart contracts in Solidity.
• You have prior experience in blockchain engineering at a Layer-1, Layer-2, or Infrastructure (Oracle, Bridge, Indexer, RPC Provider, Wallet, or other high-performance app) project.
• You are an expert with tools like Foundry and Hardhat and deeply understand security vulnerabilities at the application layer.
• You have backend engineering experience in low-level languages such as C, C++, or Rust.
• You have built something significant from scratch - preferably with users (the more, the better).
• You are a great communicator who is willing to participate in technical discussions, reviews, and documentation.
• You value the following qualities that define our engineering team.
• Ability to DO things. When it comes to problem-solving, we value practicality and common sense.
• Strong design skills (e.g. higher-level thinking about system design, appropriate abstractions, maintainability).
• Excellence in whatever you have worked on before.
• Rigorous development mindset.

Nice to have

• Preference for candidates who have shipped code on a live Layer-1 blockchain with meaningful user activity.
• Experience contributing to or building tooling for compilers, debuggers, or testing frameworks in the blockchain space.
• Familiarity with formal verification or property-based testing approaches for smart contracts.
• Contributions to open-source projects that demonstrate an understanding of cryptographic primitives and consensus mechanisms.

Practical notes

This is a full-time remote role. The position is salaried and equity is offered as part of the total compensation package. There are no specific travel requirements or visa sponsorship details listed at this time. The start date is flexible based on candidate readiness.