Zero Knowledge (ZK) Jobs

About Raiku

Raiku is reengineering blockchain infrastructure from first principles to make global digital markets as precise and dependable as physical systems. Built on Solana, our platform delivers deterministic execution, guaranteed inclusion, and low-latency performance—solving the foundational failures that cause transactions to miss, trades to revert, and systems to collapse under pressure. By placing high-performance compute close to where transactions happen and coordinating execution through our advanced scheduling engine, Raiku empowers developers to build scalable, high-performance applications—and gives institutions the reliability and control they demand. We believe financial infrastructure should behave like physics: fast, reliable, and predictable—every time, without exception.

Role Overview

Research Engineer (Solana/Rust)

We're seeking a passionate Research Engineer to drive protocol-level innovation on Solana. As the ideal candidate, you'll combine deep technical expertise with scientific curiosity to:

• Lead technical discovery initiatives focused on Solana's runtime, consensus, scheduler, and networking layers

• Conduct performance modeling and develop validator-centric architecture solutions

• Identify and address complex edge cases in transaction handling across production environments

• Translate research findings into actionable protocol design improvements

You'll collaborate directly with our CEO, CTO (your manager), protocol architects, and key Solana ecosystem contributors to shape validator economics and transaction lifecycle guarantees across the Raiku stack.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze and model Solana’s core architecture — deeply understand and document Solana’s runtime, scheduler, consensus, Turbine/Gossip, and transaction pipeline, with emphasis on edge cases under network stress or validator misbehavior.
• Lead internal research on validator economics and incentive alignment — explore impacts of Raiku’s slot marketplace, Ahead-of-Time (AOT) block auctions, and inclusion guarantees on validator profitability and slashing risks (e.g. under SIMDs 0096, 0123, 0212, 0228).
• Design bandwidth and blockspace pricing models — define and simulate pricing mechanisms for Raiku’s primary and secondary slot markets, ensuring validator rewards and application inclusion needs are economically aligned.
• Prototype system-level experiments across the Raiku and Solana stack — evaluate performance, liveness, and correctness when integrating Raiku’s ackermann-node and sidecar into Solana validator clients (e.g. Agave, Jito).
• Develop proofs-of-concept for transaction lifecycle primitives — such as pre-confirmations, slot reservations, and proof streaming for large bundled state transitions.
• Research and benchmark global account models — test interaction models across multiple VMs (e.g. SVM, EVM, MOVE) and assess state determinism and composability in high-throughput environments.
• Contribute to the design of Raiku’s protocol-level mechanisms — including builder commitments, proposer formats, MEV mitigation strategies, and slot slashing logic under failure modes.
• Author technical deep dives, simulations, and RFCs — serve as a knowledge base for both internal and external stakeholders across Raiku’s validator, capital, and app layers along with wider engineering and marketing teams.
• Collaborate with external researchers and validators — especially those running testnet sidecars or participating in bandwidth resale to ensure safe and performant mainnet integration.

Preferred Qualifications

• Technical background with strong system-level experience
• Proven open-source engineering background, evidenced by contributions to major blockchain or distributed systems repositories — ideally within the Solana ecosystem.
• Involvement in protocol research, MEV, performance tuning, or client implementations
• Experience designing proofs-of-concept for novel execution or slot-inclusion logic
• Familiarity with zero-knowledge proof systems and state settlement patterns
• Active presence in relevant research circles, Discords, or open-source forums

What We’re Looking For

• 3+ years of experience working with Rust in production (preferably in core systems or blockchain contexts)
• Deep familiarity with Solana’s source code and protocol-level architecture (runtime, scheduler, consensus, networking)
• Demonstrated ability to reason through complex distributed systems
• Experience modeling and explaining performance bottlenecks in real-world validators
• Ability to read protocol proposals and specs and convert them into actionables (e.g. implementation paths, test harnesses, edge case coverage)
• A deep design philosophy focused on deterministic execution and reliable system behavior
• Strong communication skills and clarity in technical writing

What We Offer

• A chance to join a category-defining protocol team pushing the frontier of Solana infrastructure
• Token upside and a key role in shaping Raiku’s ecosystem footprint
• Remote-first team with async workflows, a high ownership culture, and deep technical curiosity
• Competitive salary, token allocation, and performance-based bonuses
• Budget for travel, ecosystem events, and home office setup