Protocol Engineer

<h3>About Daylight</h3> <p class="p1">Daylight is the decentralized energy company. We're building a protocol that converts distributed solar and storage systems into yield-bearing infrastructure. These assets are deployed behind the meter in American homes and businesses, generating electricity revenues that flow onchain as a single, liquid yield token. Our ambition is to build the economic engine for energy abundance—where capital fuels power, and power fuels everything.</p> <p class="p1">Backed by a16z, Framework Ventures, and other leading investors, we’re bringing together top&nbsp;minds in energy and crypto to build a new kind of energy network—one that is transparent,&nbsp;decentralized, and designed for the energy transition. Learn more at <span class="s1"><a href="https://www.godaylight.com">www.godaylight.com</a></span>.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>The Role</h3> <p class="p1">As a Protocol Engineer at Daylight, you’ll lead the development of our core smart contracts and&nbsp;decentralized backend systems that underpin our onchain energy network. Our protocol&nbsp;interacts with energy hardware in the real world and tokenizes the value of flexible energy&nbsp;capacity into crypto-native incentives—bridging digital and physical infrastructure through&nbsp;verifiable smart contracts, oracles, and data integrations.</p> <p class="p1">You should bring deep experience in Solidity and DeFi architectures (especially stablecoins,&nbsp;lending, or reward mechanisms), and be comfortable deploying cross-chain smart contracts&nbsp;using modern interoperability protocols like LayerZero or Wormhole. You should also be&nbsp;confident designing systems that ingest and act on offchain data in a trust-minimized&nbsp;way—whether through Chainlink, Chronicle, or custom oracle networks.</p> <p class="p1">We’re a small team working quickly, so you should be comfortable jumping into backend tasks&nbsp;when needed—whether supporting our Django APIs or refining the interface between our&nbsp;offchain services and smart contract layer.</p> <p class="p1">This is a high-impact, high-ownership role. You'll work directly with the founding team, shaping the cryptoeconomic and technical foundation of Daylight's protocol.</p> <p>This role is in-person in our New York City office.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>Responsibilities</h3> <ul> <li class="p1">Protocol Development <ul> <li class="p1">Design and implement Solidity smart contracts that underpin Daylight’s decentralized energy markets</li> <li class="p1">Lead architecture decisions for our EVM-based systems across mainnet and L2s</li> <li class="p1">Manage crosschain deployments and integrations using LayerZero, Wormhole, or similar technologies</li> <li class="p1">Develop core logic for staking, token issuance, energy capacity verification, and rewards</li> </ul> </li> <li class="p1">&nbsp;Data Integration &amp; Oracles <ul> <li class="p1">Architect secure offchain data flows to feed real-world energy data into onchain systems</li> <li class="p1">Work with oracles and custom data infrastructure to bridge between energy hardware, APIs, and contracts</li> <li class="p1">Design and maintain trust assumptions, verification mechanisms, and upgrade paths</li> </ul> </li> <li>Backend Engineering <ul> <li>Support Daylight’s core backend team as needed with Python/Django development</li> <li>Help design and maintain APIs that interact with contracts and power our frontend applications</li> <li>Participate in DevOps, testing, and deployment of protocol-related services</li> </ul> </li> <li>Security &amp; Auditing <ul> <li>Lead internal security reviews and coordinate third-party audits of smart contracts</li> <li>Stay up-to-date on known exploits and best practices in DeFi and crosschain architecture</li> </ul> </li> <li>Product Strategy &amp; R&amp;D <ul> <li>Contribute to protocol incentive design, economic modeling, and simulations</li> <li>Evaluate new technologies, frameworks, and cryptoeconomic primitives to inform</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3>&nbsp;</h3> <h3>What we’re looking for</h3> <h4>| Must Haves</h4> <ul> <li class="p1">3+ years of experience developing and deploying Solidity smart contracts in production</li> <li class="p1">Deep familiarity with DeFi protocols—especially stablecoins, lending markets, staking, or yield systems</li> <li class="p1">Experience with crosschain development (e.g., LayerZero, Wormhole, Axelar)</li> <li class="p1">Proven experience integrating offchain data via oracles (Chainlink, Chronicle, custom feeds)</li> <li class="p1">Understanding of EVM security, auditing practices, and gas optimization</li> <li class="p1">Comfortable writing and reviewing Python code and supporting traditional backend engineering tasks</li> <li class="p1">Passion for clean energy, decentralization, and building systems with real-world impact</li> <li class="p1">Based in NYC, excited to collaborate in-office</li> </ul> <h4>| Nice to Haves</h4> <ul> <li class="p1">Experience building L2-native or modular appchains (OP Stack, Polygon CDK, etc.)</li> <li class="p1">Familiarity with protocol simulations (e.g., Python-based Monte Carlo models or token economic tools)</li> <li class="p1">Previous experience contributing to open-source protocols</li> <li class="p1">Understanding of DERs, energy hardware, or grid operations</li> <li class="p1">Experience working in early-stage startups or founding teams</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>What we offer</h3> <ul> <li class="p1">Competitive salary and equity package</li> <li class="p1">Medical, dental, and vision insurance</li> <li class="p1">Monthly wellness and Wellhub stipend</li> <li class="p1">Opportunity to shape a category-defining protocol from the ground up</li> <li class="p1">Work in-person with a deeply motivated team in New York City</li> </ul> <p><em>Daylight values diversity and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates. We're building technology that serves everyone, and we believe diverse perspectives make our team and our product stronger.</em></p>