Hyphenconnect

Institutional RWA platform - CTO/Techlead - DeFi Engineering

HONG KONG Full Time

About the Company / Protocol

We are supporting a leading institutional-grade RWA (real-world asset) DeFi protocol focused on tokenized credit, real-yield products, and fully collateralized, composable primitives. Emphasis is placed on robust risk management, on-chain transparency, legal structuring, and credit enhancement to meet the standards of traditional financial institutions.

Role Overview

Foundational, high-impact technical leadership role at a rapidly scaling institutional-grade RWA + DeFi protocol.

You will own the entire technical strategy, architecture, and engineering organization for a multi-chain (Sui + Polygon) DeFi stack that is already live with real TVL and growing fast. This is a “builder of builders” position — you will design novel financial primitives, set security standards, and scale the engineering team from ~8 to 20–30 over the next 12–18 months.

Core Responsibilities

  • Define and execute the long-term technical vision and roadmap across Sui (Move) and Polygon (EVM)
  • Architect secure, composable, high-throughput DeFi primitives (lending, yield tokens, structured products, cross-chain vaults, etc.)
  • Lead development of resource-oriented smart contracts in Move on Sui (deep understanding of object model, key/store/copy/drop, package system required)
  • Lead gas-optimized Solidity development on Polygon using Foundry/Hardhat and latest EVM tooling
  • Own cross-chain strategy: bridging, messaging (LayerZero, Wormhole, CCTP, etc.), liquidity layers
  • Build and enforce a top-tier security culture: formal verification (Move Prover), multiple audit cycles, bug bounties, internal red teams, monitoring
  • Hire, mentor, and manage senior Move and Solidity engineers (you will be the go-to technical authority)
  • Work directly with product, risk, and BD teams to ship institutional-grade features on aggressive timelines

Requirements (non-negotiable)

  • 10+ years software engineering, with ≥5 years writing production smart contracts
  • ≥3 years in technical leadership role (Tech Lead, Principal, Head of Engineering, CTO) at a protocol that reached ≥$100M TVL
  • Hands-on production experience shipping complex Move contracts on Sui mainnet (not just Aptos)
  • Battle-tested Solidity experience on Polygon or other EVM chains with large TVL
  • Deep architecture experience with at least two major DeFi verticals (DEX, lending, liquid staking/restaking, structured products, etc.)
  • Proven track record leading multiple $200k+ audit cycles with top firms (Trail of Bits, OtterSec, Quantstamp, Veridise, etc.)
  • Fluent English + fluent Mandarin/Cantonese (daily standups and docs are bilingual)

Nice-to-have

  • Past contributions to Move or Sui ecosystem (open-source packages, Sui Foundation grants, etc.)
  • Experience with formal verification of Move code
  • Previous work on cross-chain protocols or bridges
  • Published research or talks at Devcon, Sui Basecamp, or EthCC