Head of Blockchain Infrastructure - Proof-of-Stake BFT Protocols

About Clearmatics

Clearmatics is a blockchain protocol engineering company that builds decentralised financial market infrastructures that are more open, efficient, and resilient than those serving legacy market structures of today.

We have a bold vision for this new market infrastructure - enabling market participants to solve currently unaddressed problems of the real economy, including “missing markets” problems. We aim to achieve our vision through technologies that allow peer-to-peer trading and settlement within new markets, and with digital assets whose values track real-world risk factors that currently have no suitable expression in legacy markets.

No matter the nature of a risk factor, whether macro-economic or climactic, our mission is to make important risk factors tradable; by anyone, anywhere, without reliance on financial intermediaries. We are building this new infrastructure in collaboration with incredible trading and blockchain communities.

Clearmatics was founded in 2015, and we have ever since been committed advocates of Open Source development, and active participants in the blockchain and cryptography research communities. We’ve been an active participant and supporter of decentralized infrastructure initiatives including Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

We’re growing our team and are looking for a Head of Blockchain Infrastructure to join us and become part of our journey.

Our stack is Ethereum-like, so familiarity with – and passion for – the space is key.

Some of the areas we tackle include blockchain infrastructure optimized for financial use-cases, protocols for specific applications (such as smart contract-based derivatives, synthetic assets, cryptocurrency stabilization, …), scalability and privacy through cryptography (zkSNARKs, multiparty computation, private transactions/assets).

ABOUT YOU

You have experience being responsible for the operation high stake infrastructure systems and are familiar with all that this entails, such as hardware and software infrastructure management, security, resource planning, communications with the wider team and working in a highly independent and self-directed fashion. You can thrive in a fast-paced and innovative startup environment, and you are not deterred by unknowns or unfamiliar concepts.

You are currently running validator nodes for a proof-of-stake blockchain, commercially or personally. You understand the implications of protocol changes, e.g. in the context of forks and have been immersed in the blockchain world for some time.

You communicate clearly in writing and in discussions, and you are always on the lookout for ways to improve the performance, profitability, and usefulness of the nodes you are running. You love implementing efficient and highly secure systems, and have a deep rooted appreciation for how implementation details affect the big picture, and vice versa.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage the company’s validator node operations across several testnets and mainnets using Autonity, a new dPoS BFT L1 protocol, and in this context be responsible for internal SLAs and committed to KPIs;
• Play a key role within the global Autonity Community: participate in a leading position, and contribute to Autonity Layer-1 design discussions within the community of node operators, developers, and other stakeholders;
• Be Clearmatics’ voice in the community of Autonity validators, coordinating client upgrades, hard forks, and emergency responses to failures;
• Specify, procure, and set up the environment and infrastructure for validator nodes, as well as associated monitoring, logging, reporting, and alerting;
• Design and implement processes around validator node operations, such as incident response, key management, change management;
• Work closely with the Clearmatics Autonity development team;
• Create and define processes to extract maximum value from validator operations (including staking/bonding of stake; reaping of validator rewards) and reduce loss risks;
• Provide training and guidance for other members of the infrastructure team, or your own direct reports, to ensure 24/7 node operation;
• Communicate technical details via open source documentation;
• Work with various teams and the wider community to engage with new trends and opportunities revealed by internal data, blockchain research and the wider blockchain industry.

REQUIREMENTS

• Experience running validator nodes for a proof-of-stake blockchain, commercially or as a tinkerer;
• Ability to demonstrate a deep understanding of the implications of protocol changes, e.g. in the context of forks;
• Experience managing and running high stake infrastructure
• Experience with cryptographic key management on production systems;
• Familiarity with deploying and testing production software in various cloud environments;
• A deep and detailed understanding of accountability, consensus algorithms, and real-world risks, with a particular focus on financial and reputational implications;
• The ability to work closely and in detail with technical and research teams for the practical exploration of scenarios; testing; and continuous improvement.
• Ability to reason about the economics and incentive structures of a blockchain system confidently

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience managing validator nodes for a delegated-proof-of-stake Byzantine Fault Tolerant blockchain mainnet;
• Familiarity with deploying and testing blockchain nodes in various cloud environments;
• An entrepreneurial inclination
• Experience with redundant systems and distributed data storage solutions (e.g. CEPH)
• In-depth experience with cloud hosting platforms
• A keen interest in decentralised and traditional Financial Markets