@frol.near [Posted on Developer DAO Board](https://near.social/#/devgovgigs.near/widget/Post?id=541) ## Solution: Fellowship Proposal by Vlad Frolov _This post is a fellowship proposal that follows [DevDAO Fellowship Program](/#/devgovgigs.near/widget/gigs-board.pages.Post?id=540)._ My name is Vlad Frolov (aka frol), and I have been with the open-source community since 2006 and with NEAR since 2018. Throughout my time at NEAR, I have led developments of the [NEAR Explorer](https://github.com/near/near-explorer), [NEAR Indexer Framework](https://github.com/near/nearcore/tree/master/chain/indexer), [NEAR Lake Framework](https://github.com/near/near-lake-indexer), and [near-cli-rs](https://github.com/near/near-cli-rs). Additionally, I have been involved in the development of [nearcore](https://github.com/near/nearcore), [borsh-rs](https://github.com/near/borsh-rs), and several other developer tools for NEAR. - [GitHub Profile](https://github.com/frol) - [StackOverflow Profile](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1178806/vlad-frolov) I am an advocate for user-friendly, composable, and secure-by-default developer tools. I believe that command-line tools are essential for developers, as they facilitate onboarding, streamline development, and accelerate innovation through the automation of continuous delivery. ### Focus Areas I am excited to guide contributors working on [near-api-js](https://github.com/near/near-api-js), [near-sdk-rs](https://github.com/near/near-sdk-rs), [bos-cli-rs](https://github.com/FroVolod/bos-cli-rs), [near-cli-rs](https://github.com/near/near-cli-rs), and [near-cli](https://github.com/near/near-cli) projects addressing bugs, user-experience issues, and bringing support for new protocol features like meta-transactions and zero-balance accounts. I will dedicate 4 hours per week to guide those who actively contribute to these projects and I commit to responding within 24 hours during workdays. ### Objectives Currently, I am guiding one active contributor to near-cli-rs and bos-cli-rs, and I plan to invite three more part-time contributors within the next month to triage and start addressing the issues on near-api-js, near-sdk-rs, and near-cli projects. I am requesting pre-approval for a budget equivalent to two full-time software engineers to reward active contributors. ### Budget I would like to request DevDAO to reserve $34,500 USDC for the fellowship rewards; see the details below. I estimate that a Software Engineer with the level of expertise equivalent to [SDE-II Amazon level](https://www.levels.fyi/companies/amazon/salaries/software-engineer/levels/sde-ii/locations/greater-seattle-area) can become self-sufficient within 2 months. According to levels.xyz, base compensation for this level ranges from $55,000 USD/year in Eastern Europe, $83,000-112,000 USD/year in Western Europe, and $150,000-185,000 USD/year in the US. There are also stocks offering with the 1-year cliff, which is not applicable here yet, but we may revisit it retrospectively. I will balance the budget according to the Developer Governance funding guidelines while ensuring fair compensation for contributors. With a budget of $30,000 USDC ($180,000 / 12 * 0.5 * 4), I can reward at least 4 active part-time contributors from the US or 6-8 part-time contributors from Europe working for a month. I can scale it to 10 guided active contributors in the upcoming months, but I would like to start with 4-6. Also, I expect that after 3-8 months the active contributors will become successful fellowship leaders themselves. I believe that guidance success should be defined through the success of the contributors who I am guiding. Thus, I’d like to request a reward equivalent to 15% of the rewards my fellow contributors receive in their first 2 months of onboarding, and 10% of the rewards in the next 6 months while guiding them to become independent maintainers and fellowship leaders. With the $30,000 USDC budget for the contributors' rewards and 15% fellowship reward, the total requested budget reservation is, as it is already mentioned above, $34,500 USDC, which will be only released directly to the fellow contributors after they submit contribution reports and NEAR community and I (as their fellowship leader) review it. ### Contact Me If you are looking for a fellowship leader in the areas I mentioned above, leave a comment with your public resume under this post or find me in [NEAR Dev Telegram group](https://t.me/neardev).