Senior Cryptographer

Team and Responsibilities:

We’re creating a general-purpose private smart contract layer for Ethereum, affectionately dubbed ‘Aztec’.

We utilize bleeding-edge cryptography in our tech stack to realize private transactions on a public blockchain network, particularly in the realm of zero-knowledge cryptography.

As a result we possess a world-class R&D team that has co-authored the Plonk, Plookup and Zeromorph protocols. Plonk in particular is rapidly becoming an industry standard ZK-SNARK technology.

We are looking for experienced cryptographers to expand our R&D team and allow us to further enhance the state-of-the-art when it comes to generating proofs of private computation.

• Research techniques to improve both the constant and asymptotic performance of our cryptographic protocols
• Perform literature reviews to identify new developments that could improve the Prover/Verifier efficiency of our cryptographic protocols (or replace them entirely)
• Develop security proofs for our ZK-SNARK circuit architectures
• Liaise with our applied cryptographers to assist them with implementing our cryptographic protocols in software

Qualifications:

• PhD-level qualification in cryptography or a related field
• Named author in one or more papers in the field of zero-knowledge cryptography
• Familiarity with algorithms, data structures and basic programming concepts
• Ability to read and understand software implementations of cryptographic protocols written in C++
• A penchant for clear and comprehensive documentation
• Able to provide clear and constructive feedback for more junior cryptographers / applied cryptographers, mentoring where necessary
• A passion for blockchain, its potential, and what we’re trying to achieve.

What we offer:

• Flexible and remote work environment
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays annually
• Additional benefits include health insurance, retirement plans, and opportunities for professional development.
• Quarterly offsite travel for collaboration
• Events and conference budget
• An opportunity to work at the cutting edge of blockchain and FinTech with a world class cryptography and engineering team