[Contractor] Senior Blockchain Engineer (US based)

Cheesecake Labs is an AI, data, and product engineering partner for established and scaling organizations navigating legacy systems, fragmented data, AI pressure, or limited engineering capacity.

Our services include AI Implementation, Application Modernization, Data & Analytics, Product Engineering, AI-Accelerated Delivery, and Embedded Engineering Teams. We deliver agentic workflows in 8-12 weeks and modernize applications in 5-10 months rather than 2 years. We also build trusted data foundations and digital products designed to scale. Our agentic software development lifecycle accelerates execution, while experienced engineers embed with client teams to provide technical depth, security, and clear ownership.

Member of Anthropic's Claude Partner Network; technology partners include Databricks, Snowflake, dbt, and AWS.

Across 13+ years, Cheesecake Labs has built 300+ products for clients including Eurasia Group, MoneyGram, the World Bank, Stellar, Wedgewood, PepsiCo, Merck, Sodexo, and Mercado Libre.

The story behind this role

We’re continuously working with companies building ambitious digital products across Web2, Web3, AI, and emerging technologies.

Many of our client engagements start with strategic conversations and evolve quickly into active projects.

That’s why we maintain a network of strong contractor engineers we can engage quickly when the right projects come in.

This is not a traditional long-term internal role.

It’s a contractor opportunity designed for people who enjoy working across different products, clients, technologies, and business challenges in fast-moving environments.

We’re looking for a Blockchain Engineer (Contractor) who enjoys solving complex technical problems, navigating ambiguity, and contributing to real-world products used by companies across the US and Europe.

Engagement details

• Contractor / project-based engagement
• Paid in USD/hour
• Hybrid work - 4 days a week in the office (Austin or San Francisco) or Remote (USA)
• Flexible allocation depending on project availability and fit
• Opportunities may vary in duration, scope, and weekly commitment depending on client needs

Some opportunities may start immediately.
Others may become active as new projects enter our pipeline.

What this role actually looks like

This is not a “receive tasks and code” type of role.

On a typical project, you might:

• Build and evolve blockchain infrastructure services that power production-grade digital asset platforms
• Work closely with team members to figure out what should actually be built
• Integrate backend systems with Layer-1 blockchains, ensuring reliability, scalability, and operational resilience
• Build services such as blockchain indexers, event processors, chain APIs, wallet services, and transaction pipelines
• Design and improve blockchain workflows around transaction execution, event monitoring, reconciliation, and failure recovery
• Make trade-offs between scalability, security, observability, maintainability, and business priorities
• Collaborate with international clients and multidisciplinary teams to shape technical solutions for security-critical blockchain products

What tends to work well here

We’ve seen that people who thrive in this type of engagement usually:

• Have strong experience building or integrating blockchain infrastructure in production environments
• Understand Layer-1 blockchain mechanics such as transaction lifecycle, confirmations, finality, forks, reorgs, and event propagation
• Feel comfortable building backend services, APIs, event-driven systems, and distributed architectures beyond the blockchain layer itself
• Have a fullstack mindset — even if blockchain and backend are your strengths, you're comfortable navigating adjacent technologies and collaborating across the stack when needed
• Enjoy solving complex infrastructure problems where security, observability, and reliability matter as much as feature delivery
• Feel totally confident working in English with international clients and teams (calls, discussions, async) — at least advanced level
• Already use AI as part of their day-to-day workflow — whether for protocol analysis, development, debugging, documentation, testing, or workflow acceleration

This probably won’t be your thing if

Just to be transparent:

• You’re looking for a highly stable long-term internal role with fixed scope and predictable allocation
• You prefer highly structured environments with rigid processes and very defined requirements
• You’re uncomfortable navigating ambiguity or fast-changing technical contexts
• You’d rather avoid client interaction or cross-functional collaboration
• You dislike context-switching between technologies, projects, and business domains

There’s nothing wrong with any of that — it’s just not how these engagements usually operate.

One last thing

To participate in this selection process, you must:

• Be legally authorized to work as an independent contractor in the United States
• Have a valid business registration in your country (CNPJ, VAT, EIN, or equivalent)
• Have a bank account eligible to receive USD payments
• Be able to issue invoices accordingly
• Be based in the United States

These requirements are necessary for contractor engagement and payment processing.

Not sure if you check every box?

That’s okay.

We know that many great people — especially from underrepresented groups — hesitate to apply unless they meet 100% of the requirements.

If this opportunity sounds interesting, we’d still love to hear from you.

IMPORTANT TIP -> The communication during the selection process is done by email. We suggest that you keep an eye on your email inboxes and set the permission to receive messages from @cheesecakelabs.hire.trakstar.com so our messages will not be directed to the spam box ;)

The collected personal data will be used only to manage and control candidate resumes in order to assess the necessary requirements such as the contact information, and also to conduct this selection process.

The collected data will not be shared with others (“third parties”) without your authorization, and their use will be restricted to Cheesecake Labs internal staff, and also to the service providers that process your data for the selection process. At any time, you can contact us and we will remove your data from our data collection system. In order to do that, just simply send an email to [email protected].

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