Senior Staff Software Engineer (Crypto, SV) - IC8+ - US - 2026

About the Role

Nu is building crypto products that give millions of customers real, secure financial access - moving assets, interacting with blockchain networks, and managing digital assets safely and simply. As a Senior Staff Software Engineer, you'll be the senior-most technical leader connecting deep crypto and blockchain expertise to what Nu builds for customers, setting the multi-year direction for how we turn protocol-level capabilities into products at scale.

This role requires genuine, hands-on depth in blockchain protocols, custody, signing, and on-chain systems. At the same time, you're expected to reason beyond protocol design: partnering with product and business leaders to decide what Nu builds, how it creates value for customers, and how it fits Nu's broader strategy.

You'll operate across the full stack of crypto product development - from the technical judgment needed to evaluate protocol tradeoffs and security posture, to the product and business judgment needed to prioritize what gets built next. You'll partner closely with the core crypto team on deep technical and security work while driving the product and architectural direction that shapes what customers actually experience.

You'll Be Responsible for

• Set multi-year technical and product direction for Nu's crypto systems, grounded in deep expertise in blockchain protocols, on-chain data, custody, signing, and smart-contract integrations.
• Partner with product and business leaders to define what crypto experiences Nu should build next, weighing technical feasibility, security posture, customer value, and business strategy together.
• Lead the architecture of highly consequential, security-critical crypto capabilities while remaining hands-on in key technical and protocol-level decisions.
• Translate deep technical understanding of blockchain systems into concrete product capabilities and customer-facing features, not just infrastructure.
• Anticipate scalability, reliability, security, and regulatory challenges specific to crypto/blockchain systems, and set standards that raise the bar across teams building on top of your work.
• Drive complex initiatives across team and organizational boundaries, building alignment among engineering, product, business, risk, and compliance stakeholders.
• Provide technical leadership through major security incidents or production events involving crypto infrastructure, translating lessons into lasting improvements.
• Mentor Staff+ engineers and engineering leaders, and serve as one of Nu's technical reference points on crypto and blockchain systems.

Required

• Deep, hands-on technical expertise in blockchain and crypto systems - protocols, on-chain data, custody, signing/key management, wallets, asset movement, or smart contracts.
• A sustained record of Staff+ level technical leadership with impact spanning multiple teams or domains.
• Demonstrated ability to translate deep protocol/technical understanding into customer-facing product decisions and business outcomes, not just architecture.
• Experience leading highly complex, ambiguous, security-critical initiatives requiring both technical depth and cross-functional judgment.
• Ability to reason about business models, product strategy, and market positioning alongside technical tradeoffs.
• Ability to influence engineering leaders, product leaders, security, risk, and compliance stakeholders without formal authority.
• A strong record of mentoring senior/staff engineers and raising the quality of technical and product decision-making around them.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to build alignment across technical and business audiences in high-stakes environments.

Nice to have

• Experience shaping product or business strategy for crypto or digital-asset offerings specifically, beyond technical architecture.
• Experience across multiple blockchain networks or protocol families.
• Experience with HSMs, secure enclaves, or hardware-backed key-management infrastructure.
• Experience in regulated banking, fintech, payments, or institutional digital assets.
• Recognition as a technical reference in crypto, blockchain security, or distributed systems.

Location: Palo Alto, United States

Our recruitment process may involve the use of artificial intelligence-enabled tools, such as automated interview transcription and analysis, to support the evaluation process. Artificial intelligence is not used to make final hiring decisions; all decisions are made by human reviewers.

To maintain a consistent and fair process for every candidate, Nu does not provide individualized technical feedback.