Head of Engineering

We are joining the Interchain Foundation, and are rebranding Skip to Interchain Inc., as we become the ICF’s main development, product, and growth subsidiary! Read the announcement to learn more.

Who we are

📌 Interchain Inc (formerly, Skip) leads development for the Cosmos Hub, ecosystem, and stack -- the leading platform for building sovereign, interoperable blockchains. We're dedicated to offering developers full-stack programmability, complete ownership of their economics, and best-in-class distribution to users everywhere.

Our mission is to build a more free, more fair internet with the Cosmos platform at the core. The best teams already build with Cosmos across every category: defi (dYdX, Osmosis, Injective), infrastructure (Babylon, Celestia, Initia),  Depin/AI (Akash, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, Allora), privacy (Nillion, Penumbra), and many more. We want to help these teams and many more help bring the values of sovereignty and decentralization to the rest of the internet by developing the Cosmos stack and hub. 

We focus on hiring the core team and senior talent to work together in person in NYC to build a collaborative and supportive culture. But we’re still open to hiring best-in-class remote talent anywhere within 6 hours of the NYC timezone.

Interchain Inc is committed to inclusion.

Interchain Inc. is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourages individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to apply. We believe the purpose of crypto is to expand who has agency in society, which starts at home, by empowering people with diverse gender identities, ethnic backgrounds, and life experiences within our own organization. Interchain Inc. offers dedicated mentorship to support personal growth and a bright career in crypto.

Core team member responsibilities

1. Work to solve hard technical problems at the cutting edge of blockchain research alongside the founders.
2. Be empowered to make bold technical and strategic decisions.
3. Play a critical role in determining the people we hire, our culture, our engineering practices, and the products we ship.

How we work

1. We value ambition, work ethic, and m (slope) over prestige, accomplishments, and y-intercept.
2. We value thoughtful and contentious dialogue over siloed and unilateral decision-making.
3. We value acknowledging uncertainty/weakness and seeking support over unabated confidence and solo performances.
4. We’re obsessive about documenting everything, learning, and shipping as fast as possible with short feedback cycles. 

Benefits

✈️ 18 days of paid leave

🧑‍⚕️ Premium health insurance

🏦 Competitive regional compensation and token compensation

📁 Office space and accommodations for remote work

👉 We’re open to arranging paid work trials with potential hires because we think interviews give a very limited view of candidates and the company.

Description: We are looking for a senior engineering leader to help us grow and lead our engineering team, so that we can build the Cosmos stack (Comet, IBC, and Cosmos SDK) into an industry-leading platform. 

The ideal candidate has exceptionally high standards for software velocity and quality, and they’re unafraid of driving teams to meet them. They don’t tolerate B-players, laziness, entitlement, or self-satisfaction. They lead by example; they love getting their hands dirty, shipping, and getting into the weeds of the software their teams are building. They don’t think of themselves as “complete” or “perfect”, so they’re constantly sourcing feedback to identify growth opportunities and inspiring others to do the same. Someone who is an “empire builder” won’t enjoy this job. If you want to lead and build a massive team to advance your career, go somewhere else. But if you take pride in how much you can accomplish with a small team, you’re in the right place. 

Role: 

• Introduce and define the culture, processes, and expectations around engineering leadership and management at Interchain
• Architect and evolve the engineering org to facilitate cross-team collaboration across the major components of the Cosmos stack and Cosmos hub
• Ensure we hire and grow exceptional talent and continue raising the bar, even while we double the size of the team
• Coach engineering leaders at Interchain in building effective and supportive teams

Qualifications

• Requirements
  • 8+ years of engineering experience, including at least 4 years of engineering management experience 
  • History of sustainably scaling engineering teams on a budget and timeline without compromising product quality or velocity
  • Proven ability to mentor inexperienced managers effectively
  • Experience or interest in crypto or blockchain
• Bonus 
  • Experience building or contributing to blockchains 
  • History of contributing to open source projects