Applied ZK Engineer

Are you ready to build the privacy layer that brings trillions in real world assets on‑chain?

If you want to obsess over all the incredibly hard problems needed to build traditional finance on top of zero‑knowledge tech, this role is for you.

Why Etherealize?

Blockchains are finally ready to deliver on their promise of upgrading the financial system to be more open, fair, transparent, fast, reliable, and efficient. Etherealize is making this vision a reality by bringing together the brightest minds from Ethereum and Wall Street to build institutional-grade products that move global finance on-chain.

What Will You Do?

• Architect powerful, flexible privacy primitives. Work hand-in-hand with Etherealize’s President and CTO to design a set of primitives that are capable of forming the privacy-preserving backbone of all of our institutional products.
• Own development of the privacy protocol. Turn abstract designs into circuits and code that are ready to be deployed to production.
• Build secret management & private state UX. Build, utilize, and extend tooling and standards for storing, updating, and interacting with private state; work with the rest of the engineering team to ensure our products can seamlessly integrate with private state.
• Stay at (and push) the cutting edge. Become our resident ZK nerd: stay on top of emerging research and latest developments in the field and contribute upstream to open‑source projects as needed to move the ecosystem forward.

Who Are You?

• 1337 builder. You love solving impossible problems. You’ve worked on extremely challenging projects and are capable of turning complexity into elegant solutions.
• ZK native. You have direct, hands‑on experience with writing low-level circuits, using zkVMs, and working with the latest ZK tooling, as well as a foundational grasp of zero‑knowledge proof systems and design paradigms.
• Startup mindset. You’re not just a researcher. While diving deep into technical rabbit holes is certainly a part of the job, you also have a bias to action and the ability to stay laser-focused on solving real problems.

What’s In It For You?

• Solve hard problems… You’ll work on the absolute cutting edge of ZK tech, immersed in complex problems all day every day.
• …for the real world… Your code will unlock the privacy guarantees required for institutional capital to flow on‑chain, and will be backbone behind high-value institutional products. If we succeed, the protocols you work on will become some of the most critical code in the ecosystem.
• …with great people. You’ll collaborate closely with Danny Ryan (President) and Zach Obront (CTO), ecosystem leaders with deep expertise across crypto, technical architecture, and company-building.

Employment Details

• Location: Remote (Austin or NYC preferred).
• Compensation: $180,000 – $280,000 base salary + equity.
  • Final package highly variable based on prior experience, qualifications, job-related skills, and interview performance.
• Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision healthcare, 401(k), unlimited PTO, home office set-up stipend, and more.
• Start Date: ASAP.

Equal Opportunity

Etherealize embraces diversity in all its forms. We welcome qualified applicants of every background and identity.