Head Of Applied Cryptography

Summary

Join IOHK as the Head of Applied Cryptography and lead the cryptographic innovation roadmap for various projects. You will be responsible for defining short, mid, and long-term roadmaps, synchronizing with the Director of Architecture, and interacting with research, engineering, and product teams. Manage a team of cryptographers, ensuring secure implementations of cryptographic primitives and contributing to research. This role requires a Master's or PhD in a related technical discipline, extensive experience managing cryptographic engineers, and senior expertise in developing cryptographic primitives in C/C++ and Rust. IOHK offers remote work, laptop reimbursement, a new starter package, learning and development opportunities, and competitive PTO.

Requirements

• Have a Master or PhD degree such as computer science, software engineering, mathematics or a related technical discipline
• Have solid experience in managing small teams of cryptographic engineers
• Have a solid understanding of cryptography, its basic theories and uses
• Have extensive expertise of either Rust or C
• Understand and follow best engineering processes and practices
• Have the ability to translate specifications (eg, cryptography research papers and RFCs) into working code
• Have experience with formal verification of crypto primitives
• Have senior expertise in developing cryptographic primitives in C/C++ and Rust
• Have senior expertise in standard cryptography domains
• Have the ability to learn new domains like zero knowledge proofs and MPC and project innovation roadmaps
• Have a clear understanding and experience of implementing cryptographic primitives delivered by researchers
• Have experience with formal verification and security audits of cryptographic libraries
• Have expertise in security best practices
• Have experience with quick check or other property-based testing
• Have the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Have interpersonal skills
• Have experience with line management and performance reviews
• Have knowledge of development processes and methodology

Responsibilities

• Define a short, mid and long term roadmap for implementation of cryptographic primitives
• Synchronize with the Director of Architecture (or by default the CTO) to validate the roadmap, requirements and strategy for the cryptographic engineering team
• Interact and coordinate with research, engineering and product management teams when cryptographic work is required
• Define and structure the team that is required to satisfy this roadmap
• Interview cryptography engineer candidates
• Manage a team of cryptographers, organize the development methodologies and enforce the best practices defined by the engineering division
• Provide secure implementations of the cryptographic primitives that are required by IO projects
• Read and review cryptographic research papers and contribute when possible to implement them as prototypes
• Design, specify, implement, improve cryptographic primitives in production-grade software directly or delegate to and supervise the applied cryptographers in charge of it
• Review, integrate, improve common cryptographic primitives, and translate them to other programming languages or delegate/supervise the applied cryptographers in charge of it
• Motivate, develop and progress fellow team members
• Communicate openly with all members of your team, address any issues head on and not shy away from difficult conversations
• Empower your team to provide the best results by organizing clear processes and coordinating team efforts

Benefits

• Remote work
• Laptop reimbursement
• New starter package to buy hardware essentials (headphones, monitor, etc)
• Learning & Development opportunities
• Competitive PTO