Application Guide

How to Apply for Infrastructure Engineer

at Solana%20Foundation

🏢 About Solana%20Foundation

The Solana Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the adoption, decentralization, and security of the Solana network, a high-performance blockchain. Working here means contributing to cutting-edge decentralized technology that aims to give individuals ownership of their data and enable permissionless global value transfer. The foundation's focus on ecosystem building and collaboration offers a unique opportunity to shape the infrastructure of a leading blockchain platform.

About This Role

As an Infrastructure Engineer on the Product team, you will maintain and improve the infrastructure supporting both web properties (APIs, indexers, frontends) and trading systems (co-located nodes, ETL jobs). Your work directly enables builders to create better products on Solana, ensuring reliability and performance across critical services. This hybrid role is impactful because you'll balance web infrastructure with low-latency trading systems, requiring a product-minded approach to problem-solving.

💡 A Day in the Life

A typical day might start with reviewing monitoring dashboards for both web services and trading nodes, then triaging any alerts. You could spend the morning optimizing an ETL pipeline for token data, followed by a cross-team sync to discuss infrastructure scaling for an upcoming product launch. The afternoon might involve deploying a new indexer version, writing automation scripts, and documenting runbooks, ending with a code review for a colleague's Terraform changes.

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Interview Prep

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🎯 Who Solana%20Foundation Is Looking For

  • Experienced in operating high-availability web services (APIs, indexers, frontends) and comfortable with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP).
  • Familiar with blockchain infrastructure, especially Solana or similar high-performance blockchains, including running validators or nodes and managing RPC endpoints.
  • Skilled in automation and monitoring (Terraform, Prometheus, Grafana) and capable of handling incident response and on-call rotations.
  • Product-minded and adaptable, able to context-switch between web infrastructure and low-latency trading systems while prioritizing reliability and scalability.

📝 Tips for Applying to Solana%20Foundation

1

Highlight any experience with Solana or other blockchain infrastructure (e.g., running validators, managing RPC nodes) explicitly in your resume and cover letter.

2

Demonstrate your ability to handle both web and trading infrastructure by describing past projects where you balanced reliability with low-latency requirements.

3

Showcase your product mindset: include examples of how you collaborated with product teams or influenced infrastructure decisions to support user needs.

4

Mention specific tools relevant to the role: Kubernetes, Terraform, Prometheus, Grafana, and any ETL pipeline experience.

5

Tailor your application to emphasize your comfort with remote work and asynchronous communication, as the team is remote across US time zones.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

["Your passion for blockchain technology and Solana's mission of decentralization and user ownership.", 'Concrete examples of managing hybrid infrastructure (web + trading/low-latency) and ensuring reliability under high load.', "Your product-oriented approach to infrastructure, including how you've collaborated with product teams to solve acute problems.", "Your familiarity with Solana's ecosystem and willingness to contribute to open-source tooling and standards."]

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Familiarize yourself with Solana's validator documentation and the role of RPC nodes in the ecosystem.
  • → Read about the Solana Foundation's recent initiatives and grants to understand the product team's focus areas.
  • → Explore the Solana GitHub repositories, especially those related to tooling and infrastructure, to understand current challenges.
  • → Learn about the Solana ecosystem's key projects (e.g., Serum, Metaplex) to grasp the broader context of your work.

💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 How would you design a monitoring and alerting system for a Solana RPC node to ensure high availability?
2 Describe your experience with container orchestration and how you would handle scaling a web API during a spike in traffic.
3 Explain a time you had to balance reliability with low-latency requirements in a trading or real-time system.
4 How do you approach incident response and post-mortems? Give an example of a significant outage you resolved.
5 What is your understanding of Solana's architecture (e.g., proof-of-history, Tower BFT) and how it impacts infrastructure decisions?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Applying without demonstrating blockchain knowledge or failing to mention any experience with Solana or similar chains.
  • Focusing only on web infrastructure without addressing low-latency or trading system experience, as the role is hybrid.
  • Not emphasizing a product mindset; avoid purely technical descriptions without tying them to user or builder impact.
  • Neglecting to discuss remote work experience or asynchronous communication skills, which are critical for this distributed team.

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to Solana%20Foundation!

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