Lead Engineer

Location: Remote (Preferred Timezones: UTC to UTC+6; US EST/PST candidates welcome if willing to partially adapt to core team hours in CET/UTC+3/UTC+4 for ~3-4 overlapping hours daily)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Salary Range: $180,000 – $200,000 USD base plus 0.1% tokens and performance bonuses.

About Cytonic AI

Cytonic AI is a cutting-edge startup revolutionizing the Web3 space by enabling users to build complete crypto applications—including frontend interfaces and smart contracts—through natural language prompting. Powered by autonomous AI agent swarms, our platform designs, audits, and deploys DeFi, GameFi, and crosschain dApps on a Multi-VM Layer 1 blockchain (supporting EVM and SVM).

Currently in private beta, we’re gearing up for hyper-scale deployment, drawing inspiration from AI-driven tools like Lovable, Emergent Coding and Hero UI. With $8.3M seed raised and a substantial Series-A raise on the horizon, we’re a lean, innovative team focused on rapid iteration and real-world impact. Join us to shape the future of AI-meets-blockchain in a dynamic startup environment where versatility and results drive success.

We’re seeking a Lead Software Engineer—a strategic thinker with strong software engineering foundations, architectural expertise, and knowledge in Web3 and AI. If you’re a proactive leader who can “get shit done” while guiding a small team through complex AI-Web3 challenges, this is your chance to architect groundbreaking solutions.

Role Overview

As Lead Engineer, you’ll be the technical anchor for our engineering team, reporting to the CTO and collaborating with the DevOps Lead and AI Engineers. This is a hands-on role where you’ll actively contribute to development, writing code, debugging, and implementing features with a focus on scalable system architecture and AI-driven solutions. You’ll drive architectural decisions, mentor junior engineers, and ensure seamless integration of AI agents with backend and blockchain components. We’re a product-centric team that values pragmatic solutions over over-engineering, delivering user-focused features efficiently. You’ll leverage AI tools (e.g., for code generation, debugging, and optimization) to accelerate innovation in our AI-Web3 platform. In our private beta phase, you’ll prioritize high-impact system designs that support hyper-scale dApp deployment, thriving in a startup where ambiguity fuels innovation.

Key Responsibilities

  • Architect and design scalable, high-performance systems for autonomous AI agent systems, ensuring robust integration with backend services and blockchain deployments.
  • Actively develop and implement core platform capabilities, including hands-on coding for AI-driven code generation, smart contract auditing, and crosschain functionalities on (EVM, SVM, MoveVM).
  • Evaluate and implement architectural patterns and tradeoffs for backend services and AI optimizations, prioritizing scalability, reliability, and security for hyper-scale performance.
  • Mentor AI Engineers, conduct code reviews, and foster best practices in a fast-paced environment while participating in daily development tasks.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally to iterate on beta features, incorporating user feedback and addressing technical challenges while maintaining system integrity.
  • Stay ahead of Web3 and AI trends, proposing innovations like advanced agent orchestration or DeFi/GameFi enhancements, and contribute code to prototype them.

Required Qualifications and Expertise

To excel in this role, you must be a seasoned engineer with leadership capabilities and end-to-end system ownership. We’re looking for candidates with:

  • Experience Level: 7+ years in software engineering, including 2+ years in a lead or architectural role. Proven track record in designing and scaling complex, distributed systems.
  • Architectural Thinking: Deep expertise in software architecture, including patterns (e.g., microservices, event-driven), tradeoffs, scalability, and reliability for distributed systems in high-performance environments.
  • AI Engineering Expertise: Extensive experience developing autonomous AI agents, including agent orchestration, model integration/selection, observability, prompting, evaluations, and guardrails. Strong understanding of AI concepts like natural language processing (NLP) or swarm architectures.
  • Web3 Knowledge: Practical experience with blockchain fundamentals, such as smart contracts, DeFi protocols, or cross-chain technologies (e.g., EVM, SVM, MoveVM).
  • Programming Proficiency: Expert in TypeScript (TS) for core development with strong Python knowledge; views languages and frameworks as tools, with the ability to learn new technologies quickly to solve problems.
  • Problem-Solving and Leadership Mindset: Demonstrated ability to “get shit done”—leading teams through ambiguity, delivering MVPs rapidly, and iterating while mentoring others and actively coding.
  • Product-Centric Approach: Commitment to delivering high-impact solutions without over-engineering, proactively leveraging AI tools for efficiency in workflows.
  • Soft Skills: Excellent communication, collaboration, and adaptability; high emotional intelligence, low ego, and a focus on building relationships over being right. Thrives in remote, startup settings with limited resources.
  • Team Fit: We seek well-rounded leaders who collaborate effectively, prioritizing team success over isolated technical prowess.

Nice-to-Have Skills

  • Proficiency in Rust or Go for performance-critical tasks.
  • Deeper Web3 experience (e.g., Solidity, Solana smart contract development, Move, or AI in blockchain like predictive models for trading).
  • Advanced AI skills (e.g., LLM fine-tuning, agent guardrails, or swarm architectures).
  • Familiarity with DevOps practices, cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS, GCP), or scaling AI systems.
  • Experience with frontend frameworks (e.g., React/Svelte) for cross-functional contributions.
  • Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, AI, or a related field.
  • Experience mentoring in Web3/AI startups or leading beta-phase projects.

Timezone and Work Expectations

  • Preferred Timezones: UTC to UTC+6 to align with our core team (majority in CET, UTC+3, UTC+4). This ensures real-time collaboration during overlapping hours (e.g., 9 AM – 5 PM CET).
  • US Candidates: We’re open to EST/PST timezones, but you’ll need to partially adapt your schedule to ensure ~3-4 overlapping hours daily with the core team (beyond just key meetings and syncs; e.g., shifting to earlier/later hours as needed). We value work-life balance but prioritize team alignment in our distributed setup.

Our Team Culture

At Cytonic AI, we foster a collaborative, ego-free environment where innovation thrives through ownership and mutual respect. We value team players who prioritize collective success and continuous learning. To maintain our positive culture, we do not tolerate:

  • Gatekeeping or elitist tech snobbery that hinders knowledge sharing.
  • Ego-driven coding, such as always trying to be right at the expense of team progress or over-engineering without any need.
  • Finger-pointing or blame culture—instead, we focus on solutions and learning from mistakes.
  • Lack of ownership, where individuals avoid accountability for their work.
  • Promoting burnout through unrealistic expectations or overwork without support.

What We Offer

  • Competitive compensation: $180k-$200k base, plus 0.1% tokens in a highgrowth startup and performance bonuses.
  • Paid Time Off: 3 weeks (15 business days) per year, plus 5 sick days.
  • Education Support: Courses, training, or related expenses, available every quarter with progress tracked to completion.
  • Conferences and Events: Role-relevant conferences or events, in addition to any planned company events.
  • Wellness Stipend: $150 per month for gym memberships, mental health support, or similar wellness activities.
  • Health Insurance Stipend: $300 per month to support your health insurance needs.
  • Equipment/Home Office Allowance: One-time $1,000 allowance for desk, chair, monitor, or other home office setup needs.
  • Impactful work: Lead groundbreaking AI-Web3 tech in a small, agile team where your ideas shape the product.
  • Inclusive culture: We foster diversity, equity, and inclusion; all qualified applicants are encouraged to apply regardless of background.
Applying through us gives you a notably higher chance of getting your CV in front of the Cytonic AI team. Since we’re working closely with them, your profile won’t just sit in a pile.
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