Staff Software Engineer - Proving Node

About Boundless

Boundless is a protocol for accessing verifiable compute on any chain and rewarding nodes for contributing useful work. Our mainnet launch in September 2025 pioneered Proof of Verifiable Work (PoVW), a novel mechanism for verifiably rewarding provers for generating ZK proofs, and raised $71M from its community sale (18× oversubscribed). Through The Signal campaign, we raised ~300 ETH to prove the finality of every Ethereum block using ZKasper, the first ZKVM-friendly implementation of Casper FFG. We've built a network of 2,500+ provers generating billions of proofs daily. With breakthrough products like Kailua (the leading ZK fraud-proof system reducing rollup finality from days to hours) and Zeth (the first Type 0 zkEVM), we're making zero-knowledge proofs practical and accessible across Web3. Our technology powers critical infrastructure including EigenLayer’s slashing system, BOB’s hybrid ZK rollup, and Citrea’s Bitcoin zkRollup.

As a Staff Engineer on our Proving Node team, you'll architect and scale the core infrastructure that powers our decentralized proving network. You'll work on Bento, our local proving infrastructure, and the Broker, our market interaction service, to build the most efficient and scalable proving node on the market. This role sits at the intersection of distributed systems, concurrent programming, GPU optimization, and blockchain infrastructure. We welcome international applicants. Boundless is built by a global team, and we love working across time zones and cultures.

What You'll Do

• Lead Multi-zkVM Integration: Design and implement support for multiple zkVM backends in Bento, enabling provers to seamlessly switch between different proof systems based on market demand.
• Scale Infrastructure: Architect systems that scale to support 1000+ MHz of proving throughput and 1000+ GPUs, both on-premises and across cloud providers.
• Optimize Prover Economics: Develop algorithms and systems to maximize prover profitability through intelligent bidding strategies, request batching, and efficient resource allocation.
• Build Next-Gen Bento: Lead the evolution from Bento to our agent-based proving infrastructure, enabling autonomous proving decisions and market participation.
• Expand Multi-Chain Support: Extend our Broker service to support proving across all major L1s and L2s, ensuring seamless cross-chain proof delivery.
• Partner Ecosystem Development: Work directly with our community of provers to understand their needs, optimize performance, and build tooling that makes running proving nodes accessible.

Performance Engineering: Profile and optimize our proving pipeline, reducing latency from request to proof delivery while maximizing GPU utilization.

Requirements

Required

• 5+ years of software engineering experience with 2+ years in senior/staff roles.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems and high-performance computing.
• Strong systems programming skills in Rust, Go, or similar.
• Track record of designing and scaling systems handling significant computational workloads.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with zkVM architectures (RISC Zero, SP1, Polygon zkEVM, or similar).
• Understanding of blockchain economics and incentive design.

Nice to Have

• Understanding of cryptographic primitives and zero-knowledge proof systems.
• Experience with GPU programming and optimization (CUDA, OpenCL, or similar).
• Experience running cryptocurrency mining operations or distributed computing clusters.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools and cloud providers (AWS, Pulumi, or similar).
• Understanding of blockchain economics and incentive design.

Benefits

At Boundless, we take care of our people because building the future of decentralized computing starts with an empowered team. Here’s what you can expect when you join us:

• Competitive Salary.
• Annual Offsites.
• Bi-Weekly Virtual Coffees.
• Home Office Budget.
• 401(k) Plan (USA Only).
• Healthcare, Dental & Vision.
• Professional Development.
• An Exceptional Team.