Senior Software Engineer, Front-end focused, Cosmos Hub

Full Time

Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Remote

About Informal

Informal Systems is a remote-first company with offices in Toronto, Lausanne, Vienna and Berlin. We are structured like a worker’s cooperative, where important corporate actions are subject to one-person-one-vote democratic control by the member-employees.

We envision a sustainable future of cooperatively owned and governed, open-source, distributed organizations running on reliable distributed systems and are excited to grow the team with amazing individuals who believe in making this future a reality.

Informal is a core contributor to Cosmos, where we develop interoperable blockchain systems by heavily relying on formal verification tools and techniques (formal specification in TLA+, symbolic model checker Apalache, Model-Based Testing Framework, etc.)

The Cosmos technology stack, including Tendermint Core, the Cosmos-SDK, IBC, and the Cosmos Proof of Stake modules, is an industry-leading toolkit written in Go for building, deploying, and running community-owned decentralized networks. This technology is used today to secure many billions of dollars in cryptocurrency market capitalization.

About the Role

The Cosmos Hub team at Informal is looking for a front-end developer to build interfaces for the Cosmos Hub’s products. As the first front-end hire, you will have the opportunity to shape how our front-end is built. You’ll also have the opportunity to contribute to blockchain protocol and smart contract code with the guidance of our expert team. This is an ideal opportunity for a front-end developer with a strong interest in blockchain technology.

What your primary responsibilities will be:

• Build user interfaces for the Cosmos Hub’s range of products, including Interchain Security, Atom Wars, and more.
• Establish and uphold standards for maintainable, scalable front-end code in our team.
• Translate loose product requirements into optimal user solutions with solid support from UX and interface designers.
• Contribute to the development of blockchain protocols and smart contracts using the Cosmos-SDK and CosmWasm frameworks. 
• Provide mentorship to our team of blockchain developers on the best frontend practices so that they can help contribute to the products.
• Building some light backend services (Node.js or similar, your choice) to serve frontends and index blockchain data for frontends.
• Making use of shared processes, practices and tooling for effective synchronous and asynchronous collaboration

What we look for in a successful frontend developer:

• Minimum of 5 years of software development experience with a focus on frontend work
• Some prior experience, including side projects, in building smart contracts for platforms such as CosmWasm, Ethereum, Solana, or similar blockchain frameworks. Proficiency in low-level blockchain development (e.g., Cosmos SDK) is also acceptable.
• Familiarity with backend development, including setting up simple servers for database operations and serving static assets.
• Strong expertise and opinions on establishing simple and solid frontend architectures using frameworks and techniques that allow teams to contribute to them in a maintainable way.
• Ability to solve complex problems with the simplest possible solutions (KISS principle)
• Some interest in product or design – we’ll be collaborating with you to make some decisions in this area

Some of our benefits include:

• A unique, caring and friendly culture (learn more about how we work here)
• 25 days (5 weeks) of paid vacation annually, plus 3 Spiritual Days
• Company closure from December 25th to January 1
• Annual Lifestyle benefits (reimbursements for gym memberships, fitness equipment, etc)
• A remote-first, flexible work environment
• A home-office stipend to set you up for success
• Annual company retreats
• Paid parental leave
• ….. and many more!

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity in our organization. We are committed to equal employment opportunities and encourage applications from people of all race, religion, colour, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.