Location: New York, United States (Hybrid) 

Hybrid | Full-time

Compensation: $180K - $320K

Our client operates a leading decentralized perpetual exchange, managing tens of billions in cumulative trading volume and bringing global markets—including commodities, forex, indices, stocks, and cryptocurrency—onchain with full self-custody.

To support next-generation scalability, our client is seeking a Senior Infrastructure & Data Engineer. This pivotal position involves spearheading high-impact infrastructure initiatives, migrating core applications to an advanced, state-of-the-art infrastructure layer, and optimizing high-volume data pipelines. The ideal candidate will design an environment where development teams can seamlessly self-serve up to 90% of their infrastructure needs, allowing this role to focus on high-level architecture, latency reduction, and strategic data engineering.

Key Responsibilities

• Infrastructure Migration & Evolution: Lead the migration of core services from legacy environments to a robust, highly optimized new infrastructure.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Utilize 100% IaC principles to build, maintain, deploy, and manage all applications and services, prioritizing lower latency and higher visibility.
• Data Pipeline Optimization: Maintain, improve, and optimize a high-scale data pipeline to handle massive transaction volumes effectively, moving it beyond a standard setup to meet unique business requirements.
• Developer Empowerment: Build out a self-serve platform that enables internal software engineers to deploy new applications, request infrastructure, configure monitoring, and set up alerts autonomously.
• Internal Tooling Maturity: Mature and scale the in-house testing and validation tool ("Stack Orchestrator") so that developers can test applications locally in multiple environments and run multiple agents in parallel.
• Performance & Security: Drive down latency for critical-path applications by collaborating with application teams and contributing to application code. Maintain a proactive security posture by anticipating system vulnerabilities and running contained, simulated attacks using automated test suites and AI tools.

Requirements

Technical Experience

• Core Infrastructure Foundations: Mastery of networking, security protocols, identity and access control, and systems architecture.
• Containerization & Orchestration: Strong experience building and maintaining production workloads with Kubernetes, including deep knowledge of ecosystem best practices.
• DevOps & CI/CD Tooling: Hands-on expertise with Terraform, ArgoCD, GitHub Actions, Docker, Prometheus, and Grafana. Must be a strong advocate for pure Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Data Engineering & Storage: Proven experience with modern data modeling tools (such as DBT or SQLMesh) and data orchestration platforms (such as Airflow, Dagster, or Prefect).
• Database Management: Competency working with Postgres and ClickHouse for high-throughput applications.

Professional Attributes

• Security-First Mindset: A continuous focus on minimizing attack vectors and hardening system endpoints.
• AI Tool Integration: High proficiency using AI productivity tools effectively—validating outputs, setting up guardrails, and avoiding passive code reliance.
• Solution-Oriented Leadership: A commitment to unlocking velocity for development teams, prioritizing high-value impact, and defining an autonomous path forward.
• Collaborative & Adaptable: A low-ego, team-first mentality with a strong willingness to learn from cross-functional peers, including quants, software developers, and operations teams.
• Execution Alignment: Ability to practice healthy debate during the planning phase, followed by total commitment and execution once organizational decisions are finalized.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary.
• Comprehensive token and equity compensation package.
• Opportunity to work at the forefront of global decentralized financial infrastructure.

Interview Process

The interview process is structured across four distinct stages:

1. Hiring Manager Interview: An introductory conversation with the Backend Team Lead.
2. Technical Interview (System Design): A deep dive into architecture and infrastructure systems design.
3. Technical Interview (AI Coding Round): A practical hands-on session evaluating technical problem-solving and AI tool utilization.
4. Final Interview: A concluding discussion focused on cultural alignment and executive evaluation with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Due to the high volume of applications we anticipate, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback to all candidates. If you do not hear back from us within 4 weeks of your application, please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion. We genuinely appreciate your interest and wish you the best in your job search.

Commitment to Equality and Accessibility:

At MLabs, we are committed to offer equal opportunities to all candidates. We ensure no discrimination, accessible job adverts, and providing information in accessible formats. Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace with equal opportunities for all. If you need any reasonable adjustments during any part of the hiring process or you would like to see the job-advert in an accessible format please let us know at the earliest opportunity by emailing human-resources@mlabs.city.

MLabs Ltd collects and processes the personal information you provide such as your contact details, work history, resume, and other relevant data for recruitment purposes only. This information is managed securely in accordance with MLabs Ltd’s Privacy Policy and Information Security Policy, and in compliance with applicable data protection laws. Your data may be shared only with clients and trusted partners where necessary for recruitment purposes. You may request the deletion of your data or withdraw your consent at any time by contacting legal@mlabs.city.