Lead P2P Engineer

Who we are

P2P networks are at the heart of decentralized technologies and libp2p has quickly gained popularity as the goto p2p stack.

We, the Vac P2P R&D service unit, have successfully implemented and deployed a full fledged libp2p stack, which is now powering the Nimbus Ethereum 2 client as well as Waku.

Our implementation is written in Nim - an efficient, expressive and elegant programming language. Besides developing nim-libp2p, we conduct applied P2P research and take part in the libp2p specification process.

The role:

As the Lead P2P Engineer, you will spearhead a small team dedicated to advancing the nim-libp2p project and conducting libp2p-related research. Your role involves fostering a collaborative and innovative environment where knowledge sharing and skill development thrive. You will oversee the project lifecycle, ensuring the timely delivery of milestones while actively participating in the libp2p community through discussions and events. Your research will drive advancements in libp2p, leading to practical implementations that contribute to specifications, ensuring they are accessible and usable. You will engage with IFT project teams to gather requirements, aligning project goals with broader organizational objectives.

A deep understanding of the full codebase will enable you to address ad-hoc tasks effectively, acting as a resource for your team to focus on their primary responsibilities.

You will implement libp2p protocols according to existing specifications and further the architecture and development of the nim-libp2p implementation.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a small team of P2P engineers, fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and skill development among team members
• Oversee the nim-libp2p project lifecycle, ensuring timely delivery of project milestones.
• Actively participate in the libp2p community, contributing to discussions, and events.
• Conduct research to explore advancements in libp2p
• Create practical implementations of research outputs and contribute to libp2p specifications, ensuring they are accessible and usable.
• Engage with IFT project teams to gather requirements and ensure alignment on project goals.
• Develop a thorough understanding of the full codebase to effectively address and resolve ad-hoc tasks and issues.
• Act as a resource for the team, enabling them to focus on their primary responsibilities by handling urgent or unforeseen technical challenges
• Implement libp2p protocols according to existing specifications
• Further architecture and development of the nim-libp2p implementation

You ideally will have

• A passion for decentralization, P2P and privacy-preserving technology
• Strong leadership skills to mentor and guide a team, fostering collaboration and productivity
• Experience in managing projects, including planning, execution, and stakeholder communication
• Ability to handle team dynamics and resolve conflicts effectively
• Excellent communication skills to interact with team members, stakeholders, and the broader community
• Willingness to adapt to changing project requirements and priorities
• Strong engineering background
• In-depth knowledge of peer-to-peer networking protocols
• Experience with low level/strongly typed languages (C/C++/Go/Rust or Java/C#)
• Experience building networking-heavy applications and p2p networking specifically
• Experience implementing core networking protocols such as Websockets and/or Quic
• Familiar with p2p building blocks such as gossiping, routing and discovery (DHTs), and Nat traversal
• Knowledge of security protocols and practices for securing P2P networks and protecting data
• A strong alignment to our mission

Bonus points

• Experience working remotely
• Experience working for an open source organization
• Previous experience with libp2p - preferably as a direct contributor to the codebase or specifications
• Or, experience with other off-the-shelf networking stacks such as devp2p
• Experience with the Nim language

[Don’t worry if you don’t meet all of these criteria, we’d still love to hear from you anyway if you think you’d be a great fit for this role. Just explain to us why in your cover letter].

Interview Process

• Interview with our POps team
• Interview with a member of an IFT BU using nim-libp2p
• Pair programming interview with a member of an IFT BU using nim-libp2p
• Interview with Vac team lead

Compensation>

The expected compensation range for this role is negotiable, dependent on how we assess your skills and experience throughout our interview process. We are happy to pay in any mix of fiat/crypto.