Senior Backend Rust Engineer

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 isnt a sports social network, oh some claim to be however they lack even the slightest understanding of network platforms.

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced Rust developer to join our core engineering team building high-performance backend services. You’ll work on scalable APIs, data pipelines, and video-processing infrastructure, helping us deliver a cutting-edge platform for millions of users.

Key Responsibilities:

• Backend services in Rust (non-blockchain; token experience a plus)
• Designing and implementing APIs (REST and/or GraphQL)
• Building and maintaining PostgreSQL data stores
• Deploying and scaling systems on AWS
• Participating in the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC): requirements, design, coding, testing (unit, integration, end-to-end), and release
• Optional projects: ETL/ELT data pipelines, large-scale video processing/storage/serving on AWS

Requirements:

• 3–5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Strong production Rust skills (not just hobby projects)
• Solid understanding of REST and GraphQL (able to explain trade-offs)
• PostgreSQL experience
• Familiarity with AWS services (EC2, S3, RDS, etc.)
• Experience with agile or scrum workflows and multiple types of testing

Nice-to-Have Extras

• Rust + GraphQL experience (substantial bonus)
• ETL/ELT pipeline development
• Experience processing, storing, or serving large volumes of video content on AWS
• Participating in the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC): requirements, design, coding, testing (unit, integration, end-to-end), and release
• Optional projects: ETL/ELT data pipelines, large-scale video processing/storage/serving on AWS

What You’ll Be Building

You’ll lay the foundation for an ambitious native Rust platform that includes:

• A decentralized social graph with public profiles, clubs, and messaging
• Real-time chat and video sharing (similar to WhatsApp and TikTok)
• A blockchain-integrated, no-fee marketplace with cashback in OleOle tokens
• A multilingual content engine with AI translation into 200 languages
• A mini-program ecosystem allowing brands, teams, and creators to build apps inside OleOle (like WeChat)

You’ll own and scale:

• Authentication and user identity (phone-based and wallet-based)
• Token-based rewards system
• API architecture for mobile and web frontends
• Messaging and real-time communication (event streams, sockets)
• Smart routing, caching layers, and database infrastructure

Project Scope and Vision

This isn’t a basic MVP — OleOle is aiming to be the dominant global platform for sports fans:

• Supporting over 200 countries, 20,000 professional teams, and millions of fans
• Disrupting the ticketing, media, betting, content, and e-commerce industries — across football, basketball, and beyond
• Backed by exclusive partnerships with federations like the Asian Football Confederation, and expansion plans into Latin America, Europe, and Asia
• Launching in 200 languages with global crypto wallets, real-time updates, and embedded commerce

We're not just building an app — we’re building an ecosystem.

Qualifications:

• 7-10+ 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!

Additional Information

Solutions not problems.

• Creative problem solver who can courageously propose and support new ideas to our organization. Not interested in best practices, lets build something better!
• Ability to adapt. An ideal candidate will welcome the opportunity to solve a broad range of problems using a wide array of technologies.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, shifting priorities and general growing pains of an early-stage technology company
• An exceptional entrepreneurial judgment that fosters independence over micro-management
• Understanding of football and international sports a huge plus

We are offering:

• Founding engineer-level equity and token allocation
• Deferred salary until funding is secured
• All current team members are working on a deferred compensation basis — we lost our funding two months ago and made the decision to build while we raise. This comes with real risk. Closing funding could take two months or it could take five — but we’re committed to this vision and we’re looking for someone who’s equally passionate and resilient.
• Long-term ownership and technical leadership
• A mission-driven, elite team with deep experience in sports, media, crypto, and startups
• You’ll be one of the first engineers — which means maximum influence and upside.

Ole Ole is located in beautiful Austin Texas, however, this role requires some travel we are privately held and rapidly growing!