Lead Chain Engineer

About Moca Network

Moca Network, a flagship project of Animoca Brands, is pioneering chain-agnostic digital identity infrastructure for the open internet. It aims to provide a universal account for users' assets, identity, and reputation across multiple ecosystems. The core product, AIR Kit, offers digital identity infrastructure that empowers Web2 and Web3 projects to embed universal accounts, allowing users to own and utilize digital assets, identity, and reputation data, alongside access to a suite of DeFi and consumer services from Moca Network's partners. AIR Kit facilitates the creation of native app ecosystems with integrated blockchain features, ensuring consistent user accounts and identities across all consumer apps adopting the kit on any chain.

About The Role

Animoca Brands is seeking a Lead Chain Engineer with extensive production experience in Cosmos SDK/Tendermint, Evmos, and BNB Greenfield. This pivotal role involves leading core-chain modifications, protocol upgrades, and integrations across these networks. The successful candidate will be expected to make immediate contributions within a live, dynamic chain environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of product and technical strategy for all chain-related initiatives.
• Analyze business and product direction, combined with competitive insights, to architect and drive the technical roadmap for the chain.
• Oversee node maintenance, monitoring, and operational execution to ensure optimal infrastructure performance and reliability.
• Serve as the primary technical authority for managing chain-related incidents, providing expert support during downtime and resolving critical infrastructure issues.
• Develop, customize, and maintain modules built on Cosmos SDK and Tendermint, including consensus and networking-aware changes.
• Design and implement EVM-compatible features and integrations on Evmos, such as precompiles, gas/fee market considerations, state transitions, and cross-compatibility behaviors.
• Build and operate storage and data-layer integrations on BNB Greenfield, including permissioning, cross-chain data flows, and application patterns leveraging Greenfield’s storage primitives.
• Plan, test, and execute chain upgrades (governance proposals, state migrations, version bumps), hotfixes, and parameter changes across environments.
• Collaborate with protocol researchers, infrastructure, and product teams to scope and ship features spanning Cosmos zones, EVM layers, and Greenfield storage.
• Contribute to internal tooling (debug tooling, state inspection, simulation tests) and upstream open-source projects where appropriate.

Requirements

• Expert-level Golang proficiency within the context of Cosmos SDK/Tendermint, coupled with a strong understanding of state machines and consensus mechanisms.
• Proficiency with EVM concepts as implemented on Evmos, including precompiles, opcodes/gas, and JSON-RPC nuances.
• Familiarity with Greenfield SDKs/APIs, ACLs, and integration patterns with smart contracts or chain logic.
• Comfort with Docker/Kubernetes, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for chain deployments.
• Clear communication and documentation skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across protocol, infrastructure, and product teams.
• Experience with production node operations: pruning, snapshots, state sync, peers/seeds, and RPC tuning.
• Observability expertise: Prometheus/Grafana, logs/traces, alerting, and incident playbooks.
• Strong testing discipline: simulation tests, property-based testing, and upgrade rehearsals in staging/devnets.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with IBC relayer deployments and troubleshooting (e.g., Hermes, rly) and cross-chain messaging patterns.
• Knowledge of indexing and data infrastructure (Cosmos SDK events, Tendermint RPC/WebSocket, subgraphs, custom indexers).
• Security-minded development practices: threat modeling for modules, replay protection, and state migration safety.
• Contributions to Cosmos SDK, CometBFT, Evmos, or BNB Greenfield repositories.
• Experience with parameter tuning for performance under real network load.

The Perks of Joining Animoca Brands

Joining Animoca Brands offers a unique opportunity to thrive in a dynamic and innovative environment:

• A Vibrant and Diverse Workplace: Immerse yourself in a dynamic, multi-cultural environment with colleagues from over 15 nationalities (and growing!), fostering diversity and a global perspective.
• Incentives in the Web3 Space: Align your success with the growth of our innovative projects and be an integral part of the future of Web3.
• Direct Impact and Flat Structure: Your voice matters; we operate with a flat organizational structure, ensuring your ideas are heard and implemented quickly.
• Comfortable and Creative Atmosphere: Enjoy a relaxed and productive work environment with a casual dress code.
• Opportunities Across the Ecosystem: Expand your horizons by collaborating with various subsidiary brands within the Animoca Brands network, gaining exposure to a wide range of projects and technologies.
• Comprehensive Benefits Package: We prioritize your well-being with a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, life, and transportation allowances.

Key skills/competency

• Cosmos SDK
• Tendermint
• Evmos
• BNB Greenfield
• Golang
• EVM
• Blockchain Protocol Engineering
• Distributed Systems
• Node Operations
• CI/CD