At Aztec, our goal is to add privacy to Ethereum.
In the current public blockchain paradigm, users and entities unknowingly broadcast data in the public, compromising privacy and security to get trustlessness.
Not only are unencrypted blockchains inherently privacy-exposing, they require significant redundancy to compute and verify the legitimacy of transactions.
Implementing scalable encryption in a public blockchain paradigm requires cutting-edge math and engineering. Thankfully, our team of scientists and engineers invented Plonk, the industry-standard zkSNARK, and Noir, the universal language of zero knowledge.
Now, we’re building a first of its kind Layer 2 with private smart contracts. This requires new cryptographic primitives, a zero-knowledge DSL for writing contracts, a privacy-friendly execution environment, a carefully designed set of circuits that prove the validity of the chain to L1, a decentralized block-building and proving mechanism, and a top-tier user and developer experience. And it’s now time to bring it to market.
We’ve raised $125 million from industry-leading investors including a16z crypto, Paradigm, Variant, Consensys, and a_capital, and we’re growing quickly.
As a Forward Deployed Engineer at Aztec, you will serve as a technical bridge between our core engineering team and developers building on top of the protocol. You’ll dive deep into the full stack of Aztec’s architecture and work directly with early adopters to design, implement, and scale zero-knowledge applications. Your work will influence the direction of the protocol and help shape best practices in the emerging ZK development ecosystem.
Responsibilities- Act as a trusted advisor to developers building on Aztec by providing hands-on engineering guidance.
- Architect, prototype, and optimize smart contract systems in Noir and Aztec.nr.
- Design and build full-stack applications (frontend + backend) that showcase and validate core protocol functionality.
Provide technical support and collaborate on application architecture, security models, and deployment strategies. - Collect and relay actionable feedback from ecosystem partners to Aztec’s internal engineering and product teams.
Collaborate on internal Aztec projects that demonstrate new protocol features and serve as reference implementations.
Author documentation, developer guides, and example code to streamline the onboarding experience for new teams.
- 5–8+ years of software engineering experience, ideally with exposure to complex backend systems and distributed architectures.
- Proven expertise in multiple programming paradigms and stacks (e.g., Rust, TypeScript, Go, or similar).
- Strong grasp of software design principles, algorithms, and data structures.
Full-stack development experience with the ability to lead technical decisions from frontend UX to backend scalability.
Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills, with a passion for teaching and mentoring. - Strong communicator who can convey technical ideas clearly to both internal and external audiences.
Self-motivated, adaptable, and comfortable working in high-autonomy, asynchronous environments.
- Hands-on experience with zero-knowledge proofs or related cryptographic systems.
- Familiarity with L2 architectures, Ethereum tooling, and smart contract development.
- Experience in technical evangelism, developer relations, or community-facing engineering roles.
- Background contributing to or maintaining open-source projects.
- Fluency in multiple spoken or programming languages.
- Prior experience working in a remote-first startup or research-heavy organization.
- Flexible, remote-first culture with HQ in London.
- Competitive salary + equity/token options.
- 25 days annual leave + bank holidays.
- Health, dental, and retirement benefits (based on location).
- Quarterly offsites for team collaboration and bonding.
- Conference and learning budget for continual professional development.
- A chance to work on truly cutting-edge zero-knowledge infrastructure with some of the best minds in the field.
Aztec Labs is an equal opportunity employer and we value creativity, diversity, and intellectual curiosity. If you're passionate about leveraging your creative talents to make a real-world impact, and if you want to be part of a team that's shaping the future of digital privacy, then we would love to hear from you.
