Software Engineer (Compilers & Virtual Machines)

About the role

Parity is looking for a Software Engineer to join its Smart Contracts team. You will help build and maintain the low‑level execution environment for smart contracts on Polkadot, focusing on virtual machines, compilers and performance‑critical code.

Key responsibilities

• Design, implement and optimise virtual machines such as PolkaVM and Revive.
• Develop compilers and byte‑code interpreters, including code optimisation and machine‑code generation.
• Work on low‑level memory management, Linux OS interfaces and security sandboxing.
• Collaborate with open‑source contributors and integrate zero‑knowledge proof systems.
• Continuously profile and improve performance of the execution stack.

Required profile

• Strong autonomy and problem‑solving ability.
• Comfortable working in a collaborative, open‑source culture.
• Excellent communication skills, able to explain technical concepts in plain English.
• Willingness to stay up‑to‑date with Web3 and blockchain technologies.

Required skills

• Virtual machines
• RISC‑V architecture
• AMD64 assembly language
• Dynamic recompilation
• Bytecode interpreters
• Compiler optimisation and machine‑code generation
• Low‑level memory management
• Linux operating system interfaces
• Security sandboxing
• Performance engineering
• Zero‑knowledge proof systems and virtual machines

What we offer

• Competitive remuneration, including tokens where legally possible.
• Remote‑first, flexible working hours.
• Access to leading experts in Web3 and blockchain.
• Team retreats, work laptop and relocation support.