Lead Engineer, Custody Engineering – Tokenization

CoinDesk

Lead Engineer focusing on scaling and evolving tokenization architecture for CoinDesk’s Custody Engineering. Overseeing secure design and cross-functional technical initiatives in blockchain systems.

Posted 5/22/2026full-timeNew York City • New York • 🇺🇸 United StatesSeniorWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

JavaScriptOracleSolidityTypeScriptWeb3

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Drive the evolution of the foundational architecture and engineering roadmap, leading the project's scaling and tokenization phases using established industry standards.
Serve as the technical owner for the full tokenization lifecycle, including asset issuance, controlled transfer, settlement mechanics, and on-chain verification.
Lead the secure design, implementation, and audit of the smart contracts that hold customer assets, and the backend for workflows interacting with the smart contracts.
Define and enforce auditable security controls (e.g., policy engines, governance rules) that meet institutional standards for asset safety and regulatory compliance.
Act as the primary cross-functional technical interface, translating cryptographic and security requirements into actionable engineering work for engineering, product, and operational compliance teams.
Mentor a team of engineers and set the standard for code quality, security review, and engineering judgment.

Requirements

What you’ll need

6+ years of experience architecting and scaling production-grade systems.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives and mentor high-performing engineering teams to deliver high-impact solutions.
Expert-level fluency in secure public chain smart contract development, such as Solidity and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), with command of industry-standard security frameworks and libraries such as OpenZeppelin.
Deep, authoritative knowledge of token standards (e.g. ERC-20, ERC-3643, Token-2022) and advanced wallet and custody architectures (e.g., ERC-4337 Account Abstraction, Gnosis Safe).
Strong command of architecting secure off-chain services (e.g. in TypeScript), APIs, and event indexers.
Hands-on depth with modern Web3 development and testing frameworks (e.g., Foundry, Hardhat) and interaction libraries (e.g., Viem, Ethers.js).
A paranoid security mindset, with proven expertise preventing and mitigating common smart contract vulnerability patterns (re-entrancy, oracle manipulation, access control flaws), use of static analysis and fuzzing tools, and a track record of leading teams through smart contract audits.
The ability to communicate protocol logic and security trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders across global teams.
Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent professional experience).

Benefits

Comp & perks

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
ACCOMMODATION

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

smart contract developmentSolidityEthereum Virtual Machine (EVM)security frameworksOpenZeppelintoken standardsERC-20ERC-3643ERC-4337 Account AbstractionTypeScript

Soft Skills

leadershipmentoringcross-functional collaborationcommunicationengineering judgmentsecurity mindset