Senior Rust Backend Engineer – Distributed Systems

Company Description

We are pausing travoom to focus on oleolesport.com. OleOle is developing a completely free social network and messaging platform for football (Soccer), sports first super app. The primary revenue model will be gambling focused on in-match play. A completely different model than the existing leaders, we are using the Stake.com blockchain strategy. Ecommerce similar to WeChat will also drive significant revenue. We intend to operate our own crypto marketplace, our own NFT marketplace, not to mention the mini program marketplace. Lots of good technology out there owned by startups that are out of cash and lack enough users to make it on their own.

OleOle

Who We Are

OleOle is building a decentralized social network and messaging platform for global football fans — think Twitter + WhatsApp + TikTok + theScore + WeChat, built natively using Rust, WebAssembly, and blockchain-compatible architecture.

Our mission is to disrupt the global sports ecosystem by empowering fans, clubs, and brands to connect, transact, and create — all without middlemen. From football content to commerce, ticketing, gaming, NFTs, and crypto betting — we’re building a super app for sports.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a founding engineer at a startup aiming to reshape how sports communities engage digitally — from the Champions League to the World Cup.

What we do...

oleolesport.com empowers people to identify football experience and without any search requirements, simply presents the traveler with vetted components necessary to bring the trip to life -- tickets, lodging, flights and beyond. And we are building a football super app.

Why we are better...

oleolesport.com’s searchless travel approach means a soccer/football experience can be discovered, planned and purchased in a matter of minutes without the endless search-driven lunacy and inefficiency that comes with all travel planning. There isn't a sports social network; some claim to be, however they lack even the slightest understanding of network platforms.

Job Description

Job Title

Founding Backend Architect / Principal Rust Engineer

About the Role

OleOle is building a global, real-time social and messaging platform for sports fans — from the ground up, natively in Rust.

This is not a feature role and not a task-driven role.

We are looking for a senior backend engineer who has owned systems before and is comfortable making foundational architectural decisions that will not be rewritten later.

You will design and evolve the backend architecture powering public conversations, real-time messaging, video, commerce, and token-based incentives for millions of users worldwide.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

• Designing and owning core backend architecture in Rust (async-first)
• Defining service boundaries, data ownership, and evolution strategy
• Designing scalable APIs (REST and/or GraphQL) for mobile and web clients
• Modeling and operating PostgreSQL as a long-term source of truth
• Architecting real-time systems (feeds, messaging, event-driven workflows)
• Making tradeoffs around consistency, latency, and scalability
• Working with DevOps while retaining backend architectural authority
• Reviewing critical code paths and preventing premature complexity
• Helping shape the backend team as the company grows

This role is hands-on, but judgment matters more than output volume.

What You’ll Be Building

You will help lay the foundation for a native Rust platform that includes:

• A large-scale social graph (users, clubs, countries, conversations)
• Public feeds and real-time messaging
• Video and media delivery pipelines
• Token-based rewards and commerce
• API infrastructure used across mobile, web, and internal services
• Event-driven systems supporting live updates and notifications

Required Experience

• 7–12+ years of professional backend engineering experience
• Proven ownership of backend systems in production
• Strong, real-world Rust experience (async systems, not experiments)
• Deep understanding of PostgreSQL data modeling and performance
• Experience designing APIs and explaining tradeoffs clearly
• Experience building or evolving systems that had to scale
• Ability to reason about architecture without hiding behind buzzwords

If you’ve never been responsible for a system’s long-term health, this is not the role.

Nice to Have (Not Required)

• Experience with real-time systems (feeds, messaging, streaming)
• Experience with high-write or high-fanout workloads
• ETL / data pipelines
• Media or video delivery systems
• Token, wallet, or crypto-adjacent systems (non-blockchain core)

Compensation & Stage

• Compensation is deferred until funding
• Meaningful equity and long-term ownership
• Founding-level responsibility and influence
• Small team, high autonomy, minimal process

This role is for engineers who want ownership, not safety.

What This Role Is NOT

• Not a ticket-driven implementation role
• Not a DevOps-led backend role
• Not a resume-padding opportunity
• Not suitable for junior or mid-level engineers

Why This Version Works

• Senior engineers recognize themselves in this description
• Resume fakers and ChatGPT engineers self-select out
• You signal authority, ownership, and seriousness
• You stop attracting people who “know the words” but not the work

If you want, next we can:

1. Tighten this further into a LinkedIn job post
2. Create a one-paragraph screening message
3. Rewrite the technical challenge so fakers fail instantly

Qualifications

Your Background

• 7-12 years of software engineering experience (preferably at early-stage startups or high-growth platforms)
• 4+ years of experience working in Rust in production environments, ideally on scalable web or blockchain-native backends
• Strong experience designing modern, scalable backend architectures from scratch — including authentication, real-time messaging, microservices, APIs, caching, and database design
• Proficiency with Rust frameworks like Actix, Axum, Tokio, or Rocket
• Experience with WebAssembly, gRPC, or GraphQL is a plus
• Passion for decentralization, crypto, Web3, and building products that empower users
• Comfortable working without product managers, defining scope, and leading engineering direction
• Bonus: experience with blockchain integration, tokenomics, or building in no-fee marketplaces

OleOle – Where Fans Kick Off!