What Comes After Code Review: The Rise of the Security Architect
Smart contract reviews are foundational to protocol security, but they no longer capture the full picture. Modern systems rely on signer coordination, infrastructure automation, governance layers, and treasury controls that extend risk well beyond the codebase.
Cantina is looking for researchers who already understand this shift. Individuals who know how to assess fallback plans, evaluate control structures, and identify when systemic risk is embedded in design rather than implementation.
This role provides an outstanding opportunity to grow within the industry. Security architecture requires structured thinking, operational knowledge, and fluency across domains most researchers are not trained in. It also requires a different mindset, one that values clarity over cleverness and prioritizes system resilience over isolated bug discovery.
If you are looking for a challenge that drives meaningful impact, this is it. You will help define how protocols are evaluated, how operational readiness is measured, and how long-term risk is mitigated across real-world deployments. You will shape the standard, not just meet it.
Very few researchers operate at this level. Even fewer are building the structures that support it. If you are already reasoning in systems, asking where control breaks down, or thinking about what a protocol needs to survive failure, this is the challenge worth pursuing. This is the kind of work that shapes whether protocols scale safely and whether high-value systems remain functional in production.
We are building the space for this role to grow. If you want to lead in this area, we want to work with you.
Why Protocol Risk Now Demands Broader Review
Security reviews often begin with smart contract logic. Identifying flaws, interpreting protocol behavior, and validating implementation remains essential. But as protocols scale, the boundaries of risk shift.
Modern architectures span signer networks, governance systems, cloud deployments, and treasury infrastructure. These domains interact constantly, and vulnerabilities often arise where trust is assumed without structure or verification.
Incidents increasingly stem from issues such as misconfigured permissions, insecure upgrade paths, phishing attacks, lack of clear security policies or poor separation between governance and execution. These are not isolated code issues. They are systemic exposures introduced through design.
Addressing this requires a shift in assessment. Researchers must evaluate how authority flows through the system, how infrastructure is deployed, and whether operational safeguards are in place. This includes key management, alerting mechanisms, dependency control, backend integration, and cross-domain coordination.
Most researchers today are trained for deep but narrow scopes. What is needed now are those who can reason across systems and model how they behave under stress. The ability to assess both technical integrity and organizational maturity is central to protocol-scale review.
This is the capability we are developing at Cantina. Through Web3SOC, incident response, threat modeling, and strategic security reviews, we are building a path for contributors who think holistically and want to operate where protocol decisions have lasting impact.
Researcher Profiles in the Field
Within the ecosystem, researchers contribute in different ways depending on scope, depth, and experience.
Some specialize in code-level security reviews. They identify implementation flaws, logic inconsistencies, and known vulnerability patterns. Their work is essential to securing the on-chain execution layer and its interactions.
Others work closer to infrastructure and operations. They analyze how access is managed, how systems are deployed, and how control flows connect across internal tooling and third-party systems.
A smaller but growing group of researchers works across both domains. They identify where protocol assumptions break down, where systemic risk is introduced, and how entire systems can fail under pressure. This group is beginning to define the profile of the security architect.
What Security Architecture Involves
Security architecture defines how risk is managed across a system. It begins with identifying control boundaries, understanding trust dependencies, and evaluating how operational, governance, and technical layers interact.
The work includes specifying how upgrade authority is structured, how responsibilities are distributed across infrastructure and key management, how best security practices are followed and how protocols maintain continuity during adverse conditions. This role requires fluency across design, implementation context, and risk modeling.
Security architecture is distinct from implementation. It establishes the constraints, controls, and standards that guide how systems are built and maintained. It requires early involvement and contributes directly to the structure of protocol resilience.
Architects contribute to security reviews by assessing assumptions, identifying systemic weaknesses, and defining requirements that reduce risk exposure across the organization. Their value is measured not by volume of issues, but by the soundness of the system under realistic conditions.
Cantina supports this work through frameworks, review methods, and contributor pathways that are designed to integrate security architecture into protocol development and assessment.
A Defined Path Toward Security Architecture
Cantina is building the conditions for researchers to grow into this role. We are establishing a clear path from contract-focused review work to full-spectrum architectural assessment.
This begins with the Web3SOC framework, which introduces a structured maturity model across operational design, protocol security, financial stability, and regulatory readiness. Researchers who contribute to reviews within this model are positioned to influence how risk is understood and how protocols are evaluated.
Our reputation systems are evolving in parallel. Contributions that demonstrate clear system-level thinking, whether through risk assessments, fallback scenario modeling, or infrastructure evaluations, are integrated into how researchers are recognized and surfaced for higher-impact work.
This is already being applied across due diligence engagements, protocol launches, and institutional reviews. The structure is active, and the need is immediate.
Why This Work Matters, and Why It’s Worth Doing
Security architecture is one of the most influential roles in protocol development today. Researchers who build this capability are trusted to shape protocol design, lead high-stakes reviews, and define security standards across organizations. These opportunities are limited, and the people who can do this work are in high demand.
This work has direct consequences. It defines how authority is distributed, how failure is absorbed, and how protocols preserve control in production environments. It affects how organizations manage governance, maintain liquidity, and recover from adverse events.
There is significant professional upside. Researchers who operate at this level are positioned to lead security programs, contribute to protocol development, and support enterprise-grade efforts. Compensation reflects the complexity and responsibility of the role. This is specialized work, and the demand for it is growing quickly. The skill set is scarce and increasingly recognized as essential.
Cantina is building the infrastructure for this role to succeed. Architecture-level work is supported through frameworks, engagement structures, and contribution models that make it both visible and rewarded.
Conclusion
Security reviews are evolving. Protocols today demand more than implementation-level coverage. They require structured reasoning across governance, infrastructure, operational maturity, and capital risk.
Cantina is building the systems to support this next phase of work. Through frameworks like Web3SOC and targeted contributor programs, we are defining what security architecture means in Web3 and supporting the researchers who will lead it.
If this is how you already think, we want to hear from you. Reach out to us.