Lead Rust Engineer, Async VM

About Fermah

Every protocol you've used secretly depended on a human to keep running. We fixed it.

If you want to build infrastructure that gives protocols the ability to observe, decide, and act — without a human in the loop — you might be a fit for Fermah.

What We Do

Fermah is backed by a16z CSX, Lemniscap, and other Tier-1 VCs.

Our core infrastructure is Fermah Kernel — a composable, type-safe workflow engine built in Rust that lets protocols initiate actions, not just react to them. Workflows run in sandboxed containers, execute conditional logic, and deliver cryptographically verified results back onchain. No centralized servers. No keeper bots. No humans with private keys.

Fermah Kernel is live in production and powers everything we ship:

• Fermah Froben — our ZK proof generation marketplace autonomously orchestrates proofs for ZKsync and Abstract chain. 1.5M+ proofs delivered, zero human interventions.
• Flashcast — a prediction market where a tweeted question becomes a live market in 3 seconds, resolved onchain the moment an event occurs. No moderators, no committees. Currently in private beta.

We're not making existing things slightly faster. We're building categories of application that were never possible — because they required protocols to act, not just wait.

If you want to be part of a team shipping infrastructure for the machine economy, we'd like to talk.

About Our Founder

Fermah was founded by Dr. Vanishree Rao. She has been designing and building ZK for over 15 years and has a PhD in cryptography from UCLA.

---

The Role

We're looking for an experienced engineer to lead development of Fermah Kernel — our core workflow engine that gives protocols the ability to act autonomously onchain. You'll own the architecture and implementation of high-performance async VM and distributed-systems components in Rust: sandboxed execution, deterministic workflow graphs, onchain attestation, and the runtime that makes protocol agency real.

As an early team member, you'll shape both the platform and the company. Complex problems, high autonomy, direct impact on what ships.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture, design, and implementation of core protocol and VM infrastructure (async VMs, eBPF/WASM runtimes, distributed systems).
• Write, review, and maintain production-grade Rust code.
• Design asynchronous/concurrency solutions (actor model, cooperative scheduling).
• Build and optimize distributed systems (networking, consensus, peer discovery, data propagation).
• Implement embedded storage layers (e.g. RocksDB) as needed.
• Lead and mentor engineers; drive best practices in code quality, testing, and performance.
• Own deliverables end-to-end: timelines, architecture decisions, stable releases.
• Collaborate across engineering to align protocol design with product requirements.

What You Bring

• 5+ years software engineering (C++, Rust, or Go), with 2+ years production Rust.
• Verifiable contributions to Anza's Agave or Firedancer.
• VM experience: eBPF, WebAssembly, or similar.
• Distributed systems and/or P2P networking experience.
• Async models: cooperative scheduling, actor model.
• Embedded databases (RocksDB or equivalent).
• Leadership: led engineering teams, owned architecture and delivery.
• Web3 native: deep crypto/blockchain passion; protocol or infrastructure work (not memecoins).
• Self-starter. Hungry. No task too small or too large.

Nice-To-Haves

• Anchor Framework / Solana Program Library.
• Consensus protocols, cryptography, security audits.
• CI/CD, automated testing, performance profiling.
• Cloud/container orchestration, hybrid environments.
• Blockchain-specific challenges (state sync, runtime upgrades, backward compatibility).

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity.
• Driven, collaborative team that values excellence and delivery.
• Culture built on mutual respect, empathy, and impact.

---

Apply to work with us

To apply, please fill out this form.