Nethermind

Protocol Researcher

Job Description

What are we all about?

We are a team of builders and researchers on a mission to empower enterprises and developers worldwide to access and build on decentralized systems.

Our expertise covers several domains: Ethereum and Starknet protocol engineering, layer-2, AI, cryptography research, protocol research, decentralized finance (DeFi), security auditing, formal verification, real-time monitoring, smart contract development, and dapps and enterprise engineering.

Working to solve some of the most challenging problems in the blockchain space, we frequently collaborate with renowned companies, such as Ethereum Foundation, Starknet Foundation, Gnosis Chain, Flashbots, Forta Protocol, Lido, EigenLayer, Open Zeppelin, RISCZero, Aleph Zero, and many more.

Today, we are a 350+ strong team working remotely across 66+ countries.

View all our open positions here: https://www.nethermind.io/open-roles

Are you the one?

An ideal candidate is a researcher who actively participates in debates about L1 and L2 designs, systemic risks, and protocol designs by writing academic papers and formal blog-posts.
Candidates should be able to work in a distributed research team, express their research ideas clearly, and know how to argue their findings formally. We appreciate candidates who are not afraid of voicing their opinions and motivate them or ask for explanations of concepts they are not familiar with.

Responsibilities:

As a protocol researcher, you will participate in research on, for example:

Prover-, sequencer-, and builder-coordination, -design, -decentralization, and -incentivization.
Composability and interoperability of blockchains, e.g. L1-L2, L2-L2, L1-L1.
Integration of AI/AI agents on-chain, as well as the design and development of on-chain AI protocols.

Must haves:

A strong understanding of distributed protocol design. Particularly, a demonstrable ability to identify the trade-offs faced by protocols when deployed on blockchains.
Ability to identify mechanism design problems and propose solutions.
Familiarity with Ethereum: how it works and why?
Familiarity with various designs of L2s.
Published work in relevant fields.
Ability to express thoughts precisely.

Nice to haves:

Experience interacting with, or design of AI-/agentic-systems.
Knowledge about game theory.
Understanding of zero-knowledge technologies.
Understanding of legacy consensus designs.

Perks and benefits:

Fully remote.
Flexible working hours.
Equity.

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