Senior Cryptography Engineer

Here at Volume, we work with the best partners to make decentralized finance protocols valuable. We solve problems of protocol utility, governance, and growth for the leading DeFi protocols. From our team effort, we are able to drive massive growth of user transactions and the launch of the protocol economy. If a protocol fails to attract user activity, token value falters and innovation will flow away from the network.

Volume delivers software tools and user experiences that increase protocol token utility and community engagement, measured by protocol transaction volume growth. The Volume team’s interests are the protocol interests: Growth of user transactions.

Volume successfully launched Sommelier’s first iteration as PeggyJV, bringing the Cosmos Ethereum bridge to market and resulting in Sommelier raising a total of $26MM in funding to launch the first automated DeFi blockchain to manage Liquidity Provider capital on Ethereum via the Cosmos.

Volume’s investors include Alameda Ventures, Curve, Solana, SimplyVC, and many others.

We are always looking for individuals who desire a high-impact, high-visibility role within a company that is making crypto and decentralized protocols valuable.

As a Sr. Cryptography Engineer on our Engineering team, you will work with us to design, evaluate, and implement zero-knowledge proof constructions, distributed cryptographic protocols, distributed key generation, as well as cryptographic protocols such as elliptic curves and hash functions. Working as an integral member of our Engineering team, you will put this cryptography into practice for privacy and scalability.

As our Sr. Cryptography Engineer, you will have a chance to work across the full spectrum of our protocol architecture that is built around the Cosmos-SDK, built in Golang, Rust and Solidity. Our software empowers Sommelier validators to secure the Sommelier network which offers financial automation globally. As an early employee you will be a critical part of our core team and have a significant influence over the direction of the company.

Responsibilities:

• Evaluate and analyze existing zkSNARK and zkSTARK proof systems such as Groth ‘16, Ben-Sasson ‘18, and PLONK for security, expressivity, and performance while also monitoring the state of the research field for compelling new theoretical advances
• Update and alter existing cryptographic protocols, customizing them for specific proof-of-concept and production use-cases
• Produce technical specifications for designs and instances of cryptographic protocols and assist with implementation
• Implement, review, and test cryptographic operations and protocols, primarily in Rust
• Evaluate existing implementations
• Bring DeFi to reality on Cosmos-SDK-based chains

Requirements:

• 5+ years experience in software development and relevant experience in blockchain technologies.
• Degree in Computer Science or related field
• Prior experience with cryptographic protocols, especially zkSNARKS or zkSTARKs
• Experience with a proof assistance such as Idris, Coq, or Agda
• Prior experience in low-level systems programming, ideally in Rust. C++ experience ok
• Experience with Cosmos-SDK.
• Knowledge of fault-tolerant consensus protocols like PBFT or Raft
• Ability to write production-quality code
• Proven track record of delivering applications on time and on budget
• Experience working with distributed teams across timezones
• Experience designing and building performant and scalable network protocols.
• You are passionate about blockchain, have used DeFi dApps and believe in the opportunity of decentralization and blockchains to change how the financial world works today
• You thrive in a startup environment and feel best working in a small, cross-functional team where you can roll up your sleeves and be hands-on
• You have an interest in working in a self-organizing environment and bring creativity to start your own initiatives within the Cosmos Stargate SDK

About Volume:

Volume is a dynamic start-up company, and our successful candidate must have the ability and desire to work in a fast-paced environment. As a distributed team, we hire anywhere in the world, and at various levels of experience (entry, senior, staff). We look for people with unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds.

Volume is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse workplace. All applicants will be considered equally without regard to race, color, ethnicity, veteran status, religion, national origin, marital status, political affiliation, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, membership in an organization, or any other non-merit factors.

We have a great benefits package, including parental leave, contributions to your retirement, competitive pay, and unlimited time off. For U.S.-based employees, we also provide platinum-level health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family.