Principal Engineer, R&D

Location: Remote

Reports to: CEO

Compensation: $180K–$250K base + equity

About ZODL

ZODL (Zcash Open Development Lab) is building the software necessary to onboard billions of users to Zcash. Created by the original inventors and developers of the Zcash protocol, we deliver world-class UX for ZEC on top of our core protocol work.

Our product suite includes Zodl mobile (iOS and Android) with built-in cross-chain swaps, and Zallet, a full-node Zcash wallet written in Rust, built as a replacement for the zcashd wallet. On the horizon: Zodl Vault (a desktop wallet for multisig, inheritance, and institutional use cases), web-based wallets, and headless/agentic wallet infrastructure.

The Role

We're creating an R&D function and hiring its first leader. This person will explore new product opportunities across Zodl's consumer and infrastructure surface area, including mobile, desktop, web-based wallets, Zallet, headless/agentic wallets, and commerce tools. The best ideas become working prototypes that get handed off to our engineering and product teams for development and release.

This is not a product management role. You won't be writing tickets and running standups. And it's not a pure research role. We need working code, not papers. The job is to independently identify opportunities, evaluate their feasibility against real protocol constraints, build proof-of-concept implementations, and make a case for what we should build next.

You'll work closely with the CEO (who serves as Head of Product) to align R&D priorities with product strategy. You'll partner with our Head of Partnerships to evaluate technologies from partners and ecosystem players, conducting reviews for fit and viability. And you'll collaborate with our Head of Protocol R&D to validate that what you're proposing is achievable at the protocol level. But the expectation is that you can operate independently: form a thesis, pick up the right language or framework, build something that works, and present it with a clear recommendation.

What You'll Do

• Identify and evaluate new product opportunities across Zodl's product suite and beyond, including agentic wallets, web-based wallets, commerce infrastructure, cross-chain capabilities, privacy-preserving UX patterns, and areas we haven't thought of yet

• Build working prototypes in whatever stack fits the problem (Rust, TypeScript, Swift, Kotlin, Python) to validate feasibility and demonstrate value

• Evaluate partner and ecosystem technologies (cross-chain protocols, hardware wallet integrations, DeFi primitives, payment rails) in collaboration with our Head of Partnerships, conducting fit and viability reviews

• Work with the CEO/Head of Product to align R&D exploration with product strategy and company direction

• Consult with mobile engineering on R&D activities to ensure alignment with platform constraints

• Leverage core and mobile engineering teams to assist and collaborate on prototypes as their bandwidth permits

• Produce clear handoff artifacts (specs, architectural recommendations, and prototype code) that our engineering teams can use to plan and execute development

• Assess protocol-level feasibility independently, understanding when and how to engage our Head of Protocol R&D for deeper validation

• Present findings and recommendations to the CEO and broader team with conviction and clarity

What We're Looking For

Required

• Significant experience building in the blockchain/crypto space. You understand wallets, key management, transaction construction, and on-chain/off-chain tradeoffs at a level where you can reason about them without hand-holding

• Polyglot builder. You pick up languages and frameworks as needed rather than being anchored to one stack. You've shipped code in at least three languages in a professional context

• Strong product intuition. You can articulate why something should be built, not just how. You've originated product ideas that shipped, not just executed on someone else's vision

• Excellent written communication. This is a remote, async-first team. Your prototypes need documentation. Your recommendations need to be legible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Comfort operating independently with high ambiguity. You won't have a detailed roadmap handed to you. You'll be expected to define your own priorities and make a case for them

Preferred

• Experience with privacy-preserving technologies (zero-knowledge proofs, shielded transactions, viewing keys, threshold signatures/FROST)

• Familiarity with the Zcash ecosystem or adjacent privacy-focused protocols

• Experience with cross-chain interoperability (bridges, intents-based architectures, atomic swaps)

• Background in consumer wallet or payments UX

• Experience with web-based wallet architectures (browser extensions, progressive web apps, embedded wallets)

• Experience evaluating and integrating third-party SDKs and partner technologies

• Prior experience at an early-stage startup where you wore multiple hats

How This Role Fits the Org

You report directly to the CEO. You are a peer to the Head of Partnerships and the Head of Engineering, not a report to either. Your primary collaborators are:

• CEO / Head of Product: Sets product strategy and direction. You work closely with them to align R&D priorities and get sign-off on what moves forward.

• Head of Partnerships: Surfaces partner capabilities, ecosystem opportunities, and market signals. You evaluate technical fit and viability and prototype integrations.

• Head of Engineering: Manages the shipping roadmap across core and mobile. Your validated prototypes and specs enter the development pipeline through them.

• Head of Protocol R&D: Owns protocol-level research and specification work. You validate architectural feasibility with them. They are the authority on what's achievable at the protocol layer.

• Mobile Engineering: Consulted on R&D activities to ensure alignment with platform constraints and implementation realities.

You are not in the critical path for shipping. Your job is to stay ahead of the roadmap, exploring what's next while the rest of the team ships what's now. You can pull in core and mobile engineers to collaborate when their schedules allow, but you should never be blocked waiting for them.

What We're Not Looking For

• Someone who needs a large team or significant budget to be effective. This is a solo operator role for now.

• A pure researcher who publishes but doesn't ship code.

• A generalist PM who coordinates but doesn't build.

• Someone whose crypto experience is limited to trading or tokenomics. We need protocol-level depth.