Senior Full Stack Rust Engineer, Contract - US

What You Bring:

• 5+ years of experience creating and managing Rust applications in production environments
• Strong command of Rust's ownership model, lifetime system, trait system, and error handling patterns
• Experience with the async Rust ecosystem (Tokio, async-std, or equivalent runtimes)
• Proficiency with common Rust web frameworks and libraries (Actix, Axum, Warp, or equivalent)
• Demonstrated ability to debug Rust applications in production: diagnosing panics, memory issues, deadlocks, and performance bottlenecks
• Strong systems/backend engineering experience in a production setting — this is not a prototyping or research role
• Experience designing and building APIs, background workers, data pipelines, or other backend services that run reliably at scale
• SQL and Data Strong experience creating scalable and efficient SQL queries, including complex joins, window functions, indexing strategy, and query plan analysis
• Experience working with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or equivalent) in production
• Familiarity with testing best practices in Rust and broader software engineering
• Experience writing and maintaining unit tests, integration tests, and ideally propertybased or fuzz tests
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and how testing fits into a production deployment workflow
• Knowledge of Kubernetes and containerized environments: deploying, scaling, and troubleshooting services running in containers
• Experience with observability and alerting in mission-critical distributed systems: structured logging, distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, or equivalent), metrics (Prometheus, Grafana, or equivalent), and alerting configuration
• Ability to communicate effectively with team members at all levels — engineers, product managers, and leadership
• Willingness and ability to mentor junior engineers: code review, pair programming, and knowledge sharing on Rust and systems engineering topics
• Compensation:
• Rate is up to $87 hourly on a Fixed Term, W2 Contract. Contracts are evaluated quarterly, or every three months, for this project, and will likely extend. This is based on a 40-hour workweek and leveling. Keep in mind, we're flexible.
• WE SUPPORT YOU BEING YOU:
• DEPT® is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). We believe our work is its best when our people feel safe and free to be themselves. We’re committed to an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment and selection process and workplace, regardless of anyone’s lived experience, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and genetic information. So tell us about any accommodations you need. It’s totally confidential and only used to make sure you feel fully supported at every step.
• DEPT® participates in E-Verify, meaning your Form I-9 information will be sent to the federal government to confirm you are authorized to work in the U.S.
• We are a B Corp-certified company passionate about purpose-driven work. Our hope is that you can feel good about the contributions DEPT® is making to the world and we always have an open door for your ideas in making the world a better place.
• DEPT® is a pioneering technology and marketing services company that creates integrated end-to-end digital experiences for brands such as Google, KFC, Philips, Audi, Twitch, Patagonia, eBay and more. Its team of 2,500+ digital specialists across 30+ locations on 5 continents delivers pioneering work on a global scale with a boutique culture.
• Learn more about DEPT®
• DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION
• At DEPT®, we take pride in creating an inclusive workplace where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive. We actively seek to recruit, develop, nurture, and retain talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, with varying skills and perspectives.
• Not sure you meet all qualifications? Apply, and let us decide! Research shows that women and members of underrepresented groups tend not to apply for jobs when they think they may not meet every requirement, when in fact they do. We believe in giving everyone a fair chance to shine.
• We also encourage you to reach out to us and discuss any reasonable adjustments we can make to support you throughout the recruitment process and your time with us.
• Want to know more about our dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion? Check out our efforts here.
• #LI-Remote