NEAR is one of the most active ecosystems in crypto, spanning a Layer-1 protocol, a leading cross-chain intents and settlement layer (NEAR Intents), a consumer-facing financial app (near.com), and a rapidly growing AI stack & agent framework (Ironclaw). It also sits at a turning point on security. Recent industry incidents, the acceleration of AI-enabled attacks, and the emergence of institutional counterparties now requiring a named security owner have made it clear: the ecosystem needs a senior, credible operator to own this function end-to-end.

This is that role. You will be Head of Security, with primary ownership of Defuse Labs (NEAR Intents) and NEAR One — the two entities carrying the highest operational risk — and extending coverage to the NEAR Foundation and NEAR AI in partnership with their leadership. A formal Security Committee provides oversight and governance; you provide execution.

What you'll own

Your objective is to pragmatically manage hard security risks across companies operating complex financial instruments in adversarial cross-chain environments. We care about real practical security first and foremost, not paper-based certifications.

You will be protecting against state actors, insider threats, and countless numbers of LLM agents. The scope includes every single chain we integrate. Think defence in depth, but the depth must cover things like 13-block reorgs of Litecoin or margin trading engine exploits in a partner protocol.

End-to-end security posture
Define and operate security across NEAR Intents and NEAR One — including identity, cloud (AWS/GCP), endpoints, application security, and SecOps — within a crypto-native model where smart contract risk, on-chain monitoring, key management, and validator/infrastructure security are first-class concerns.

Smart contract and protocol security
Establish security standards, audit strategy, and release gating for production deployments. Own how code moves from development to mainnet.

Incident response
Lead ecosystem-wide response across both traditional infrastructure and on-chain events — preparation, detection, containment, and recovery. When incidents happen, you are the point of coordination and decision-making.

Key management and asset security
Design and oversee key management architecture across protocol, treasury, and operational environments, including MPC, custody models, and access controls.

Offensive security
Define and run a continuous testing strategy — internal security testing, external audits, red teaming, and bug bounty programs.

Team and tooling
Build a lean, high-leverage security function from the ground up. Decide where commercial tooling is required and where open-source or in-house approaches are more effective.

Governance and external engagement
Serve as a voting member of the NEAR Security Committee. Act as the primary security counterpart for institutional partners, auditors, and regulators. Work closely with Legal on disclosures, regulatory matters, and enforcement coordination. Collaborate with external advisors, including SVRN.

AI and emerging surfaces
Establish security practices for AI and agent-based systems, including model integrity, prompt injection risks, and agent execution boundaries.

Who you are

• A proven security leader from an environment where getting it wrong was not an option — a major on-chain protocol, a top-tier exchange or custodian, critical infrastructure, or a peer ecosystem operating at serious scale. You've built programs, not just maintained them.
• Deeply technical. You can read a Terraform module, challenge a threat model, and set budget priorities in the same afternoon — and you're comfortable arguing with engineers on the merits.
• Think from first principles. You understand how ROI on an audit is calculated and how much of the cost is attributable to the auditing company brand alone. You understand what formal verification is, what risks it protects against and how and why it fails. 
• You are excellent at system design. You understand how to isolate risks and limit blast radius. You’ve designed circuit breakers before. You understand how to divide and conquer projects quickly where getting results would normally take years.
• Fluent in crypto risk, or demonstrably capable of becoming so quickly. Smart contracts, on-chain forensics, MPC, key management, and validator security are core to this role. If you treat crypto as "just another vertical," this isn't the right fit. You know what https://rekt.news/ is and you know the most common hacks of the lending protocols.
• Clear authority, used well. You have a direct mandate from the Security Committee and real authority over security for the entities in your remit. You know when to enforce and when to persuade — and you're not afraid of either.
• Composed in public. Incident disclosures, partner calls, committee and board reporting — this role lives in the open.

About us

Defuse Labs develops NEAR Intents to enable seamless cross-chain interactions in an automated world — connecting AI, services, and financial applications. At Defuse Labs we design intent-driven liquidity layers, where smart contracts breathe, AI transacts and chains sync in real-time With expertise in AI, cryptography, and decentralized finance, our team is redefining how intelligent agents interact across blockchain networks.

Our team operates in startup mode: high ownership, fast execution, strong technical standards, and a clear mission to make decentralized systems more accessible and useful at scale.

We are looking for a Solutions Engineer to primarily support the internal development and growth of Near Intents, while also assisting with integrations, enabling strategic partners, and working closely with developers across the ecosystem.

This role combines hands-on technical work, external partner support, solution engineering, and developer enablement.

About the Role

You will act as a key technical point of contact for partners integrating Near Intents into their products and workflows, while also contributing internally to the development and improvement of the core product, including building new features, enhancing system stability, and supporting ongoing technical initiatives.

You’ll help developers understand the product, solve implementation challenges, improve time-to-integration, and provide valuable ecosystem feedback internally.

This is an ideal role for someone who is technical, highly communicative, pragmatic, and enjoys working across engineering, product, and external stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Partner Integrations & Adoption

• Support ecosystem partners and strategic clients integrating Near Intents into their products
• Help design technical integration approaches and solve implementation challenges
• Troubleshoot issues across APIs, SDKs, transaction flows, and partner systems
• Reduce friction in onboarding and shorten partner integration timelines
• Identify recurring blockers and work with internal teams to improve product readiness

Technical Enablement

• Write and maintain technical documentation, integration guides, tutorials, and sample repositories
• Core product development and improvements will be the primary workstream, including features and stability enhancements
• Support SDK usage and developer onboarding flows
• Explain complex technical concepts clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Developer Support & Ecosystem Engagement

• Act as a primary technical point of contact for partners, developers, and ecosystem teams
• Support external users across Telegram, GitHub, forums, and other channels when needed
• Gather ecosystem feedback and advocate for developer needs internally
• Conduct workshops, demos, office hours, or technical sessions when relevant

Internal Collaboration

• Work closely with product and engineering teams to prioritize integration improvements
• Provide insights based on partner conversations and adoption patterns
• Help shape developer experience and external technical positioning

Must-Have Requirements

• Excellent communication skills and strong command of English
• Mid-to-senior level technical expertise in software engineering
• Strong experience with TypeScript and Node.js
• Proven technical experience working on blockchain-related products
• Ability to troubleshoot technical issues independently and communicate solutions clearly
• Strong ownership mindset and ability to operate in a fast-paced environment

Strong Plus

• Experience in Developer Relations (DevRel)
• Experience with DevOps, particularly GCP and Kubernetes
• Experience with distributed systems, observability, monitoring, and reliability engineering, including tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, and telemetry platforms
• Experience working directly with external partners, clients, or developers
• Experience building high-frequency trading (HFT) or trading engines
• Degree or strong academic / practical background in Mathematics or Physics
• Rust knowledge is helpful but optional

About Us 

Defuse Labs develops NEAR Intents to enable seamless cross-chain interactions in an automated world — connecting AI, services, and financial applications. At Defuse Labs we design intent-driven liquidity layers, where smart contracts breathe, AI transacts and chains sync in real-time With expertise in AI, cryptography, and decentralized finance, our team is redefining how intelligent agents interact across blockchain networks.

We invite you to be a part of our team of smart, professional, result-oriented and fun individuals. Join us to help ensure that our background processes run smoothly while we are striving to become the best in the industry.

About the Position

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to contribute to the improvement and maintenance of the innovative DApps in the NEAR ecosystem. Someone who wants to work in a fast-paced start-up and is motivated at the prospect of building something new from the ground up, gets engaged at an early stage of projects.

This position is focused on building a blazing-fast frontend and an SDK for a cross-chain DEX utilizing multi-party computation, chain signatures, secure enclaves and intent-based architecture. Our goal is to bridge the gaps between EVM and non-EVM chains so a deep understanding of web3 technologies is required.

You will work closely with the Protocol team, designers, QA and external partners to provide the best possible user and developer experience. You will bridge the gap between business requirements and technical implementation, taking an active role on both sides and defining how the application looks as well as how it works.

Your responsibilities include:

• Ensuring that precise financial instruments are easy to use and to understand.
• Optimizing every millisecond of user interactions.
• Implementing deep tracing and observability of user flows.
• Creating the best SDK for other DApps to use.
• Designing, testing and implementing the most resilient state machines for managing RFQs.

Here are some of the technologies we work with:

• Typescript.
• React.
• Next.js.
• Xstate.
• Wagmi.
• DatoCMS.
• React Native.

Must have:

• 10+ years of experience as a software engineer, with a proven track record of shipping products.
• Strong sense for design and UI/UX.
• Ability to code with multiple target form factors (mobile, tablet, desktop) in mind.
• Experience in building functional and effective platforms.
• Strong attention to detail, ensuring clean, organized, and maintainable code.
• The ability to effectively collaborate with coworkers across multiple time zones.
• Familiarity with cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, or a closely related field.

About Us 

Defuse Labs develops NEAR Intents to enable seamless cross-chain interactions in an automated world — connecting AI, services, and financial applications. At Defuse Labs we design intent-driven liquidity layers, where smart contracts breathe, AI transacts and chains sync in real-time With expertise in AI, cryptography, and decentralized finance, our team is redefining how intelligent agents interact across blockchain networks.

We invite you to be a part of our team of smart, professional, result-oriented and fun individuals. Join us to help ensure that our background processes run smoothly while we are striving to become the best in the industry.

About the Position

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer (Solvers) to architect and guide the development of our Solver network—the core infrastructure powering NEAR Intents. In this role, you'll lead engineering design and implementation, enhance performance and reliability, and build the next generation of intent‑powered cross-chain execution.

Responsibilities

• Design & build the Solver framework: Architect the algorithms, execution strategies, and infrastructure that power solver competition, quote aggregation, and intent-ready execution workflows.
• Drive technical excellence: Lead deep code and design reviews, make high-impact architectural decisions, and uphold the highest engineering standards.
• Collaborate across teams: Work with product, research, and ecosystem partners to align Solver capabilities with the NEAR Intents roadmap.
• Guarantee performance at scale: Ensure low-latency, high-throughput execution across chains and decentralized environments.
• Innovate Solver economics: Shape incentive structures, competition mechanisms, and cryptoeconomic models to grow and sustain Solver participation.
• Stay hands-on: Balance leadership with active coding, prototyping, and tackling the most complex technical challenges in real-time.

Requirements

• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, high-performance networking, or large-scale infrastructure.
• Strong familiarity with smart contracts, on‑chain execution frameworks, or cryptoeconomics.
• Fluency in Typescript and Go is a must (experience in Rust is a plus).
• Strong at abstracting complexity: breaking down organizational and technical challenges and driving them to resolution.
• Comfort in ambiguity: you move fast, take ownership, and delight in solving hard problems.

Nice to Have

• Experience building MEV strategies, solver networks, or competitive auction mechanisms.
• Familiarity with cross-chain messaging protocols or cryptographic signature aggregation.
• Knowledge of AI/ML applied to optimization problems.
• Prior work in open-source ecosystems, especially in Web3-native protocols.