<aside> 🌱

**Tonk is hiring. If the following resonates, you could be a great fit:**

• You want to solve historic problems at the frontier of AI, distributed systems and cryptography.
• You want to join an engineering team that traverses from research to reality on a daily basis.
• You’re thoughtful about technology & our responsibility to leave the world in a better & more beautiful state than we found it.
• You crave that feeling when you’re growing uncomfortably fast, alongside a team that challenges & supports you.
• You’re hungry for creative ownership, without the burdens of bureaucratic overhead. </aside>

About Tonk

Tonk is a venture-backed, London-based startup.

The Product

It's something between a multiplayer app and a document. Scaffold code in seconds, drop in images or CSV files and just like that your tonk springs to life.

You can share a tonk like you share a file. Watch it evolve, in real-time, as others participate in it; a tonk instantly connects to any open copies of itself. You can host it online as a website by simply linking to the file. When you go offline it continues to work. If you want to be extra safe, just download a snapshot for backup. Everything in your tonk stays private to you and others who have been given the keys. It's as if you could put the cloud securely in your pocket.

The Vision

The internet today feels a little too much like a shopping mall where every business rents and every person is the product. We need alternative space; digital networks where you can live and work freely.

This problem will be getting worse now that AI is making software infinitely malleable. What's left of value will be your data, your connections — your digital life.

New technological ground is needed to ensure your data drives value for you, your connections stay yours and your digital life remains private. On this land, malleability is freedom.

That's why we're building Tonk — software that runs locally, syncs between peers and belongs entirely to you. It's human-scale software that spreads between people like files, woven through communities like stories and lasts as long as you need them.

And we're building it in the open, together with you. Come build with us.

The team: multidisciplinary - we’ve started & exited successful startups, worked at the highest levels in the heart of Silicon Valley, graduated from world-class universities - but we’re creative, with a deep background in art, dance and theatre. We’re backed by world-class investors. Our deep backgrounds in cryptography & distributed systems, coupled with the wider AI revolution, positions Tonk exceptionally well in pursuit of its mission.

Read more on our website.

The role

You’ll design and build Tonk’s core distributed architecture — shaping how our system scales, performs, and adapts to real-world complexity.

• Architecting and implementing new distributed systems.
• Optimising for scale, latency, and fault tolerance in real-world, unpredictable conditions.
• Designing robust cryptographic features where needed (e.g. ZK proofs, encryption).
• Writing clean, maintainable, high-performance code primarily in Rust and Typescript.
• Operating in a fast-moving, high-trust environment where autonomy is expected and supported.
• Collaborating directly with founders, users, and early partners to shape technical strategy.

Your ideas will play a major influence in Tonk’s wider evolution and market trajectory.

How we will support you

We take personal and professional growth seriously at Tonk — not just as a perk, but as a core part of how we operate. Here’s what that looks like:

• A culture of learning, not fear — We treat short-term setbacks as fuel for growth, not as failure. Reflection, honesty, and iteration are core to how we improve.
• A 500-day growth plan — We’ll collaborate with you to map a bold, personal 500-day career plan that reflects your goals, strengths, and ambitions — both inside and outside Tonk.
• External mentorship — You’ll get access to mentors and domain experts outside the company to widen your perspective and sharpen your thinking.
• Mutual stretch — We will push you to grow beyond your comfort zone — and expect you to challenge us to do the same.

What we’re looking for