TRM Labs

Compensation

Full Description

TRM Labs is a blockchain intelligence company committed to fighting crime and creating a safer world. By leveraging blockchain data, threat intelligence, and advanced analytics, our products empower governments, financial institutions, and crypto businesses to combat illicit activity and global security threats. At TRM, you'll join a mission-driven, fast-paced team made up of experts in law enforcement, data science, engineering, and financial intelligence, tackling complex global challenges daily. Whether analyzing blockchain data, developing cutting-edge tools, or collaborating with global organizations, you'll have the opportunity to make a meaningful and lasting impact. We’re seeking an Engineering Manager who can combine technical leadership in building high-performance serving systems with people leadership in growing and mentoring a team. You’ll own the roadmap for our serving infrastructure, guiding architecture decisions and ensuring that our data services meet stringent performance, reliability, and usability goals. The impact you’ll have here: Lead and Scale a Team: Build and manage a high-performing group of engineers focused on the serving layer, balancing technical execution with career development and mentorship. Own the Serving Layer: Design, implement, and operate systems that provide low-latency, high-throughput access to petabyte-scale blockchain datasets. Architect Next-Gen Serving Infra: Drive adoption and evolution of StarRocks on Iceberg, ClickHouse, and related technologies to deliver hybrid OLAP and real-time query capabilities. Enable Data-as-a-Service: Build APIs, caching, indexing, and query engines that make processed data easily consumable by products, analysts, and external customers. Ensure Performance & Reliability: Establish and enforce SLAs for query latency and uptime; monitor, tune, and optimize queries, indexes, partitioning, and caching strategies. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with pipeline teams to define contracts, schemas, and freshness guarantees between batch/stream processing and serving systems. Production Ownership: Lead incident response and post-mortems for serving infra issues, ensuring resilience and continuous improvement. Strategic Vision: Shape the long-term roadmap for serving systems, balancing cost, performance, scalability, and developer experience. What we’re looking for: Proven Leadership: 3+ years of engineering management experience, with a track record of building and scaling high-performing teams. Serving Layer Expertise: 5+ years of hands-on engineering experience building distributed serving systems, with deep knowledge of StarRocks on Iceberg, ClickHouse, or equivalent OLAP/serving technologies. Distributed Systems Mastery: Strong background in query engines, caching, materialized views, real-time ingestion (CDC/streaming), and hybrid batch + real-time serving architectures. Data Performance Focus: Skilled in query optimization, indexing, partitioning, and pre-aggregation strategies at scale. Strong Engineering Skills: Proficiency in Python, SQL, and solid understanding of database internals and query planning. Operational Excellence: Experience with Kubernetes, observability stacks, CI/CD, and reliability engineering practices. Collaborative Mindset: Ability to partner effectively with data science, product, and platform teams to deliver scalable data products. AI-native mindset: ability to leverage modern AI/ML tools and workflows to accelerate engineering productivity, data processing, and problem solving About the Team: Our team is spread out over several countries and time zones. To leverage the opportunities and address challenges that come with this working model, we've built a culture grounded in trust, transparency, and adaptability. Even though we're scattered across different time zones, we stay closely connected through open communication and regular check-ins. Our use of digital tools helps us collaborate seamlessly and work at an impressive pace, delivering results at TRM speed while staying in sync. The diversity of perspectives and expertise within our team sparks creative exchanges and enhances our problem-solving capabilities, allowing us to leverage our global synergy to drive innovation and efficiency. We're driven by a deep sense of ownership, constant pursuit of improvement and an obsession with delivering magical experiences to our customers; these are a core part of our culture. We're driven by the desire to continuously hone our craft and to this end, we regularly assess our processes, seek feedback, and embrace iterative development to refine what we do. We structure problems and use the 80/20 rule(for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes) to identify where to direct our razor-sharp focus. Each of us is passionate about excellence and growth, and we're encouraged to challenge the status quo and experiment with new methods. This mindset creates an environment where innovation is part of our daily routine and every team member is an impact-oriented trailblazer. By celebrating our successes and learning from our setbacks, we stay agile and forward-thinking, always striving to elevate our performance and impact. Learn about TRM Speed in this position: The team received a request from customers to show the running balance for assets tied to an address within the product. They brainstormed to determine the minimal viable solution that could be delivered within two weeks. The team decided to develop a framework that would facilitate enabling this feature for each chain (such as BTC, ETH, etc.) individually. They successfully implemented and tested this solution for the BTC chain and delivered it to customers within the two-week timeframe. This approach allowed the team to quickly provide value to customers and establish a repeatable process. The team was tasked with implementing a new feature that would enable TRM to gather feedback from the user community swiftly. Due to the company's goal of showcasing the feature at an upcoming event, the timeline was tight. The team quickly adjusted to the request, assessed the requirements, and developed a solution that addressed 80% of the needs and could be executed within a very short timeframe. They successfully delivered the feature on schedule, impressing customers with both the functionality and the speed of execution. The team was tasked with developing a solution to reveal Indirect Exposure through cross-chain swaps in response to a competitor's similar feature. Before choosing the technical approach, the team consulted with stakeholders to establish a feasible timeline for the implementation. With this input, the team devised a solution that fit the timeline, communicated the tradeoffs to stakeholders, and successfully delivered the solution as promised. The following represents the expected range of compensation for this role: The estimated base salary range for this role is $220,000 - $240,000. Additionally, this role may be eligible to participate in TRM’s equity plan. Life at TRM Labs Leadership Principles Our Leadership Principles shape everything we do—how we make decisions, collaborate, and operate day to day. Impact-Oriented Trailblazer – We put customers first, driving for speed, focus, and adaptability. Master Craftsperson – We prioritize speed, high standards, and distributed ownership. Inspiring Colleague – We value humility, candor, and a one-team mindset. Accelerate your Career At TRM, you’ll do work that matters—disrupting terrorist networks, recovering stolen funds, and protecting people around the world. You will: Work alongside top experts and learn every day. Embrace a growth mindset with development opportunities tailored to your role. Take on high-impact challenges in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. Thrive in a culture of coaching, where feedback is fast, direct, and built to help you level up. What to Expect at TRM TRM moves fast—really fast. We know a lot of startups say that, but we mean it. We operate with urgency, ownership, and high standards. As a result, you’ll be joining a team that’s highly engaged, mission-driven, and constantly evolving. To support this intensity, we’re also intentional about rest and recharge. We offer generous benefits, including PTO, Holidays, and Parental Leave for full time employees. That said, TRM may not be the right fit for everyone. If you're optimizing for work life balance, we encourage you to: Ask your interviewers how they personally approach balance within their teams, and Reflect on whether this is the right season in your life to join a high-velocity environment. Be honest with yourself about what energizes you—and what drains you We’re upfront about this because we want every new team member to thrive—not just survive. The Stakes Are Real Our work has direct, real-world impact: Jumping online after hours to support urgent government requests tracing ransomware payments. Delivering actionable insights during terrorist financing investigations. Collaborating across time zones in real time during a major global hack. Building new processes in days, not weeks, to stop criminals before they cash out. Analyzing blockchain data to recover stolen savings and dismantle trafficking networks. Thrive as a Global Team As a remote-first company, TRM Labs is built for global collaboration. We cultivate a strong remote culture through clear communication, thorough documentation, and meaningful relationships. We invest in offsites, regional meetups, virtual coffee chats, and onboarding buddies to foster collaboration. By prioritizing trust and belonging, we harness the strengths of a global team while staying aligned with our mission and values. Join our mission! We’re looking for team members who thrive in fast-paced, high-impact environments and love building from the ground up. TRM is remote-first, with an exceptionally talented global team. If you enjoy solving tough problems and seeing your work make a difference for billions of people, we want you here. Don’t worry if your experience doesn’t perfectly match a job description— we value passion, problem-solving, and unique career paths. If you’re excited about TRM’s mission, we want to hear from you. Recruitment agencies TRM Labs does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to TRM employees. TRM Labs is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes and will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company without a signed agreement. Privacy Policy By submitting your application, you are agreeing to allow TRM to process your personal information in accordance with the TRM Privacy Policy Learn More: Company Values | Interviewing | FAQs