Protocol Engineer, Smart Contracts & Oracle Data

About Chronicle Labs

Chronicle builds decentralized oracle infrastructure that delivers verifiable data to DeFi and tokenized asset applications. We started in 2017 as the oracle for MakerDAO, now Sky, and today our oracles secure more than $15 billion in collateral across major chains. Our work spans DeFi, tokenized assets, institutional oracle infrastructure, and Proof of Asset systems. We are scaling our engineering team to support new chains, new oracle products, and more demanding production use cases across both crypto-native and institutional environments.

The Role

We are looking for a Protocol Engineer with a strong smart contract focus.

This is not a narrow Solidity-only role. Smart contract work is central to the position, but in a startup oracle team, on-chain engineering also includes chain research, deployments, audits, protocol analysis, production support, off-chain data flows, and operational tooling. You will work on EVM smart contracts, oracle deployments, audit cycles, DeFi protocol analysis, and the data models that help turn protocol state into reliable oracle values.

Contract work comes in waves around new features, audits, deployments and security reviews. During those periods, on-chain work is the priority. Between those cycles, you will support DeFi protocol research, Proof of Asset methodology, data model design, deployment workflows and production investigations. This role is a good fit if you like smart contracts, but also enjoy understanding how protocols work end to end. It is not a good fit if you only want to write Solidity and avoid operational or off-chain context. This is an individual contributor role with meaningful ownership and close collaboration across engineering.

Location and Hours

We are a remote-first team. Candidates should be based in, or able to reliably work with, Central European working hours. Strong overlap with CET/CEST business hours is expected.

What You Will Do: Smart Contracts and On-chain Engineering

• Write, test, deploy, configure and maintain EVM smart contracts for Chronicle oracle systems
• Support deployments and upgrades across EVM chains and L2 environments
• Review smart contract changes for correctness, security, maintainability and operational impact
• Support audit preparation, audit response, remediation and post-deployment checks
• Research new chains, L2s, hard forks, EIPs and EVM changes
• Build proof-of-concepts for new on-chain components and help move successful designs toward production
• Optimize for safety, readability and gas efficiency, in that order
• Document contract behavior, assumptions, deployment steps and operational risks

Protocol Analysis and Oracle Methodology

• Analyze DeFi protocols, vaults, pools, lending markets, staking systems, collateral models and token accounting
• Understand how protocol mechanics affect oracle correctness
• Translate protocol behavior into data requirements, assumptions and calculation logic
• Identify edge cases and failure modes before they become production issues
• Support methodology design for Proof of Asset, reserves, balances, NAV, AUM and reconciliation use cases
• Help keep oracle methodology clear, reviewable and maintainable

Off-chain and Operational Engineering

• Work with Go-based services, Python tooling, deployment scripts and operational workflows where needed
• Support data model implementation and source/origin integrations for oracle feeds
• Help debug issues across contracts, APIs, data sources, transformation logic and oracle outputs
• Support deployment registers, configuration tracking and production readiness checks
• Work with WASM-based or modular execution environments where relevant
• Help improve traceability between protocol research, implementation, deployment and production behavior

Security and Production Readiness

• Apply a strong security mindset to smart contracts, cryptographic assumptions, data models and production systems
• Use applied cryptography concepts in practical engineering work, including signatures, hashes, key management and common attack scenarios
• Think about how systems fail, not only how they work
• Support internal reviews, audit evidence, customer security reviews and institutional due diligence when needed
• Make assumptions explicit before production use
• Write clear technical documentation and keep it current

What We Are Looking For

• Strong practical experience with Solidity and EVM smart contracts
• Good understanding of EVM internals, including storage, gas, calldata, events and transaction execution
• Experience with Foundry or comparable smart contract tooling
• Strong CS fundamentals
• Good applied cryptography fundamentals. You should understand signatures, hashing, key exchange, key management and common attack patterns at a practical level
• Security-focused mindset and interest in smart contract review
• Good understanding of DeFi mechanics, including pools, vaults, lending, staking, collateral and token accounting
• Ability to reason from protocol mechanics to data requirements and calculation logic
• Practical backend literacy, preferably with Go, Python, Rust or similar tooling
• Ability to work independently, ask good questions early and deliver within agreed timelines
• Clear written English and strong documentation habits

You Will Stand Out If

• You have contributed to production smart contracts
• You have audited or reviewed EVM contracts, including competitive audits or public security work
• You know Solidity libraries such as OpenZeppelin, Solmate or Solady
• You understand lower-level EVM concepts and can reason about gas, storage layout, calldata, bytecode-level behavior and contract optimization when needed
• You follow current EVM topics such as L2 fragmentation, blobs, account abstraction, precompiles and recent hard forks
• You have worked with oracle systems, DeFi integrations, Proof of Asset systems, reserves reporting or tokenized asset data flows
• You have experience with Go services, Python tooling, WASM runtimes or modular execution environments
• You have worked with deployment automation, deployment registers or production configuration tracking
• You have worked with Solana or other non-EVM ecosystems
• You can move at startup speed without cutting corners on production safety and security

What Success Looks Like After 12 Months

• You have contributed to smart contract changes that reached production
• You have supported at least one audit or security review cycle
• You have helped with deployments or upgrades across EVM environments
• You have built enough system knowledge to review and improve contract assumptions, deployment configuration and production readiness
• You have contributed to DeFi protocol analysis or Proof of Asset methodology
• You have worked effectively across on-chain and off-chain boundaries
• You are trusted to own smaller protocol changes independently, with review

Hiring Process

1. CV review
2. Initial screening with our Operations team
3. Interview with Engineering leadership
4. Technical interview focused on on-chain experience, EVM knowledge and smart contract reasoning
5. Technical interview focused on security fundamentals, applied cryptography, operational experience and protocol analysis
6. Identity and location verification for final-stage candidates

Because we operate security-sensitive infrastructure, final-stage candidates complete identity and location verification as part of our standard hiring process

What We Offer

• Production oracle infrastructure used across DeFi and tokenized asset ecosystems
• Direct exposure to smart contract security, audits and deployments
• Work across on-chain systems, oracle methodology and production data flows
• An experienced, globally distributed engineering team
• Competitive compensation package
• Equity participation
• Flexible payment options, including USD, EUR and USDC
• 6 weeks vacation
• Remote-first environment
• Flexible working schedule
• Annual company offsites

How to Apply

We only consider applications sent directly by candidates, either through LinkedIn’s Apply button or through our application page: https://app.dover.com/apply/Chronicle/4c8558fd-fba3-4221-86a2-6414b713716a

We don’t accept CVs from agencies or third parties for this role. Fake recruiter outreach is common in crypto, so if anyone contacts you about this role from anywhere other than LinkedIn or a @chroniclelabs.org address, don’t download files or run code they send you.