About The Company

ChainSafe Systems is a blockchain R&D firm on a mission to realize the potential of Web3 infrastructure through sustainable, open-source development. Our vision is to create a world with organizations that empower people to build and innovate through blockchain agnostic tools and other distributed technologies.

We are global leaders in the industry, unique in our work across multiple blockchain ecosystems, and currently are pioneering technology and infrastructure related to Ethereum, Polkadot, Filecoin and more. We are actively pursuing the development of our own product suite, having recently released Files, which allows users to upload and store files on IPFS and Filecoin with the goal of furthering development to provide a decentralized alternative to cloud storage.

ChainSafe is a unique company in a unique space, growing quickly and building a global reputation in this nascent space. Beyond offering experience across every major blockchain space to our team, we provide an open, inclusive, and supportive environment where we help folks reach their full potential as a human and as a professional.

Job Short Description

Who we need

The ideal candidate would be a software developer with a deep passion for research and development, a cryptography background, and blockchain experience.

As a Research Engineer:

• you like solving complex problems and do not give up until a solution is found
• you like learning new things and explaining them to people
• you are comfortable understanding and contributing to complex codebases
• you are good at reviewing and writing long research documents
• you are a trusted source of clear and accurate information for clients
• you value practicality over perfection
• you are passionate about decentralization and blockchain
• can work async across timezones in a distributed remote first team

This role will provide an opportunity to be up-to-date with the latest innovations around blockchain technology. The right candidate would be motivated to be both an observer and a driver of these innovations. You will have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. Every project is on the cutting-edge and quite often, we’re figuring things out as we go, so continuous learning & teaching is the norm.

Responsibilities

• Architect and prototype novel blockchain-based and blockchain-adjacent software solutions to enable new features, improved performance, cross-chain integrations, and more for our clients
• Communicate with internal and external stakeholders regularly to understand their goals, share project progress, and address ambiguities
• Write proposals for new research and development, including detailed project plans with milestones and developer time/cost estimates
• Write specifications and supporting documentation to help developers implement our solutions
• Peer review research, proposals, and code

Requirements

• Familiar with cryptography and/or blockchain stack including front-end, back-end, smart contracts, and protocol layers
• Experience building blockchain protocols or applications
• Ability to break down complicated concepts into simple language
• Writing technical articles, specifications, white papers
• Deep understanding of cryptography and security in the context of blockchain
• Comfortable reviewing code in the absence of documentation
• Some experience with Go, Rust, JavaScript, and/or Solidity
• Understanding of distributed systems & peer-to-peer network protocols
• Ability to proactively plan, lead, execute, provide updates, and be accountable for projects
• Strong interpersonal skills when collaborating with clients and teammates
• Eager to constantly learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding

Bonus points

• Experience with open-source development
• Experience writing academic articles and publications
• Technical product management/client relationship management experience

Hiring Steps

• Selected candidates will be invited to a 30-minute screening call with one of our tech recruiters
• Then, candidates will be invited to a 60-minute cultural fit interview with the hiring team
• Next, the candidate will be given a take-home technical assignment, due in one week
• Based on the technical assignment delivered, candidates will be invited to a 60-minute technical interview