Alexander Shchepetov
Lead Smart Contract Engineer & Protocol Architect · Remote · GMT+3
Summary
Lead smart contract engineer and protocol architect with 6+ years of experience, 4 of them in DeFi. I take protocols from idea to production: architecture, mechanism design, contracts, and the backend and frontend that go with them. Across the protocols I've worked on: $441M+ in turnover, $10M peak TVL, $5.8M revenue, no production exploits. Use AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex) as part of daily workflow, with human review on architecture and security-critical decisions. Master's in Blockchain from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).
Skills
Protocol Architecture & Mechanism Design: DeFi Protocol Design (AMMs, Staking, Lending, Prediction Markets), Tokenomics & Incentive Modeling, Cross-chain Architecture (multi-chain deployment, native L1↔L2 token bridging), Storage Layout & Gas Strategy, Custom On-chain Cryptography.
Smart Contracts & Tooling: Solidity, inline assembly (Yul), EVM Internals, Hardhat, Foundry, OpenZeppelin, Solady, PRBMath, Uniswap-style FullMath, Proxies.
Standards & Cryptography: EIP-712 typed data, ERC-1271 smart-account signatures, EIP-1153 transient storage, ERC-4337 Account Abstraction, Pedersen commitments, hash-to-curve, BN254 pairings, zk-SNARKs, Aave v3, Morpho Blue, Chainlink Price Feeds.
Security & Audit: Threat Modeling, Trust Assumption Analysis, Reentrancy Patterns, Internal Audit, Fuzz & Invariant Testing (Echidna, Medusa), Property-Based Testing, MEV-aware Design, Gas & Storage Optimization.
Backend & Off-chain Systems: Python, FastAPI, TypeScript, ethers.js, web3.py, The Graph, Dune Analytics, PostgreSQL, Rust.
AI-Assisted Development: Claude Code and Codex for test generation, audit preparation, backend scaffolding, research, and documentation. Architecture, mathematics, diff review, and commits stay with me.
Experience
Lead Smart Contract Engineer & Protocol Architect
- Owned smart-contract development across the protocol as the sole on-chain engineer, and became the person the team turns to whenever a business problem needs an on-chain solution. No production exploits across $10M peak TVL, $441M+ turnover, and $5.8M revenue.
- Designed the core protocol mechanics: prediction-market logic (odds, bookmaker positioning, settlement) and the Liquidity Tree (co-designed with another engineer).
- Designed and built the $AZUR (ERC-20) token economy: distribution model, vesting, several staking mechanisms, fee accrual to stakers, and long-term holder rewards.
- Validated new mechanisms with on-chain data analysis (Dune) and backtesting on historical data before shipping, then tuned parameters post-launch from real protocol metrics.
- Coordinated security through internal audit and 10+ external audits with leading firms (Pashov Audit Group, hexens, Hacken, Pessimistic, and others), working directly with auditors on findings and architectural decisions.
- Built off-chain systems around the protocol as needed: FastAPI backends, on-chain indexing on The Graph, Dune analytics dashboards, user-behavior analysis, and risk-monitoring tooling. Joined as one of three smart contract engineers in 2022 and grew into the sole on-chain owner over the following four years.
Lead Smart Contract Engineer & Protocol Architect · Code and demos available on request, under NDA
- Shipped two stealth DeFi protocols as the sole engineer, covering protocol architecture, mechanism design, Solidity contracts, and Rust backends.
- Designed a custom on-chain privacy scheme for the prediction market, built on Pedersen commitments. The bettor's chosen side never appears on-chain in any form, and resolve invariants make it mathematically impossible for the operator to forge payouts. The design avoids both a trusted setup and an off-chain proving system.
- Built a modular fixed-term lending protocol with an Aave-v3-style registry-based design (chosen over a monolithic core for upgrade safety), intent/solver matching in the spirit of CoW Swap and 1inch Fusion for atomic multi-source loan funding, and pluggable yield strategies (Aave v3, Morpho Blue).
QA Engineer — OpenVINO ML test infrastructure on Intel processors
Backend Developer
Education
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) — Master | 2021 – 2023
Blockchain Technologies, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. Thesis: working alternative mempool for ERC-4337 Account Abstraction, deployed spring 2023.
State University of Nizhni Novgorod (UNN) — Bachelor | 2017 – 2021
Information Systems for Business.
Languages
English (working proficiency, B2), Russian (native).