Research Cryptographer & Mathematician
About the Role
You will design, evaluate, and implement cryptographic protocols and primitives. You will create and analyze zero-knowledge proof constructions such as zkSNARKs and zkSTARKs, and work on threshold encryption, distributed key generation, elliptic curves, hash functions, and multi-party protocols. You will produce comprehensive technical specifications, implement and test cryptographic operations primarily in Rust, and review existing implementations for correctness and performance. You will customize and combine protocols for proofs-of-concept and production use-cases and collaborate with engineers on bringing specifications into working implementations.
Requirements
- Mathematical and/or cryptographic background in complexity theory, abstract algebra, and cryptographic protocol design
- Expertise in constructive protocol design and analysis of distributed cryptographic protocols
- Design or implementation experience of a protocol (research paper, experimental project, past work project, or detailed write-ups)
- Proficiency in Rust for implementing and testing cryptographic code
- Must be based in Europe (including UK) and willing to travel to Berlin for initial onboarding
Responsibilities
- Design new cryptographic protocols from first principles
- Evaluate and analyze existing cryptographic protocols such as zkSNARKs and zkSTARKs for security, expressivity, and performance
- Update, alter, reimplement, and combine existing cryptographic protocols for specific proofs-of-concept and production use-cases
- Produce comprehensive technical specifications for designs and instantiations of cryptographic protocols
- Implement, review, and test cryptographic operations and protocols primarily in Rust
- Collaborate with engineers on implementations of cryptographic protocols
Benefits
- Remote-first work
- Relocation assistance and visa support
Skills
Halo2Elliptic CurveThreshold CryptographyZksnarkProtocol-AnalysisHash FunctionZk-StarkDkgAbstract AlgebraDistributed Key GenerationArkworksZkstarkThreshold EncryptionMulti-Party ProtocolDistributed Cryptographic ProtocolComplexity TheoryOperating Systems ArchitectureZero-Knowledge ProofDistributed SystemsProtocol DesignZkvmRustRisc0