Job Title: Core Protocol Engineer
Company: Ritual, building a sovereign execution layer for AI.
Job Type: Full-time
Location: Remote, Worldwide
Salary/Pay: Not specified. Includes a highly competitive compensation package with an annual discretionary bonus, 100% of premiums covered for healthcare, and an aggressive 401k match
Experience: Proven track record of shipping production-grade blockchain systems.
Skills Required:
- EVM and execution clients: deep understanding of EVM internals and Ethereum execution clients (Geth/Reth)
- Precompiles: strong experience implementing and optimizing precompiles
- Programming: expertise in Go and/or Rust for systems programming, and Solidity
- Ethereum protocol: thorough knowledge of Ethereum's roadmap and active participation in protocol discussions, with the ability to read, understand, and implement EIPs and protocol specifications
- Parallel execution: experience with parallel execution patterns in blockchain systems
- Consensus and architecture: strong understanding of consensus mechanisms and blockchain architecture
- Work style: acting quickly under high pressure, switching context frequently, and taking end-to-end ownership with excellent communication skills
Advantage: Knowledge of mempool dynamics, transaction ordering, and the MEV-Boost implementation; background in mechanism design or market systems; deep knowledge of proof systems and their trade-offs (prover time, verifier time, proof size); experience optimizing proof generation and verification pipelines; experience with cross-chain bridges or interoperability protocols; contributions to Ethereum client codebases; background in distributed systems and concurrent programming
Date Posted: Oct 21, 2026
Application Deadline: Nov 20, 2026
Description:
Ritual is hiring a Core Protocol Engineer with deep expertise in Ethereum execution clients to help extend the EVM for next-generation compute capabilities. You will expand the execution layer to support novel precompiles, implement parallel execution patterns, and design systems for heterogeneous compute orchestration. Your work will include:
- Designing and implementing extensions to EVM clients (Geth/Reth) to support stateful precompiles
- Implementing novel mechanism design primitives into the execution layer, in collaboration with the research team
- Developing and optimizing transaction processing pipelines for heterogeneous workloads
- Researching and implementing solutions for state access conflicts
- Contributing to core protocol development and EIP implementations
- Collaborating with the research team on protocol specifications and mechanism design improvements
- Designing and implementing robust testing frameworks for execution client modifications
How to Apply: Apply here