Before you read the details of this role, there’s something you should know. At Matter Labs, we don’t see ourselves as a company, but as a highly aligned global team on a single mission: to accelerate the mass adoption of crypto for personal sovereignty.
Our core technology – zkSync Era – is a layer 2 rollup that uses advanced cryptography called zero-knowledge proofs to scale Ethereum without compromising on security or decentralization. zkSync Era is EVM compatible, which means projects on Ethereum and other EVM-based blockchains can easily deploy on zkSync Era to take advantage of low gas fees and high transaction speeds.
With a total of $458 million in mission-driven funding, zkSync Era is the first EVM-compatible ZK Rollup to go live on testnet (February 2022) and be deployed on mainnet (October 2022). As we enter the endgame for Ethereum scaling, we are committed to full open source and building in public toward our stated mission [so that even if we fail, the community and the ecosystem will benefit from our contribution].
The Role
We are looking for Research Scientists to join our Research Team. We are looking for accomplished researchers with a PhD in relevant areas of computer science interested in working on various aspects of the complex system that MatterLabs is building, including security, performance, networking, hardware, programming languages, program correctness, and various aspects of applied cryptography related to zero-knowledge proofs.
We expect you to have a track record of research in a relevant area and to be connected to both the academic community and industrial practice. Experience of working on other blockchain projects is a plus but not a requirement. This role is full-time with a strong preference for candidates located within the broader US or EU.
- We expect you to be an expert in your field and to apply your knowledge and expertise to come up with solutions relevant to what MatterLabs is building
- We expect you to work with both research scientists as well as engineers and engineering managers to get what you produce deployed
- We expect you to be a member of the academic community and to read and possibly write papers, listen and possibly give presentations, in order to stay abreast of the most recent developments as they happen
- Experience in one (or more) of the following areas: performance (distributed systems, runtimes, networking stack), security, verification and/or machine learning
- A PhD in computer science or related discipline
- A track record of research relevant to or deployed in an industrial setting
- Ability and willingness to produce technical blogs, reports, and papers
- Deep understanding of software engineering best-practices
- Ownership mindset and a track record of successfully accomplished projects
- In-depth knowledge of common algorithms, data structures, and their computational & memory complexities
- Proven publication history
- Experience implementing complex prototypes both from scratch and based on existing code bases
- Ability to produce code that leads to industrial deployment
- English is your native language or you are completely fluent
Working at Matter Labs
At Matter Labs, you have the freedom to work how you want, when you want, and from where you want. We operate in small, focused teams, with no time tracking and minimum bureaucracy. Only results matter. We will provide you with anything you need to learn, grow, and be productive.
Our results-only environment means anyone who believes in our mission can join us, regardless of background, sexual orientation, race, gender, and age. Both our team and community are made up of people from different countries, cultures, ethnical and religious backgrounds. That's why, out of politeness and respect, we refrain from opinions on politics, religion, or sex at the workplace.
We designed our culture of freedom and ownership to persist as we scale and to establish the base for a positive-sum community as we move toward full decentralization.
Apply now if this role sounds of interest and we aim to get back to you as soon as possible.