Senior Performance Architect - Midnight

Who are we?

IOHK, is a technology company focused on Blockchain research and development. We are renowned for our scientific approach to blockchain development, emphasizing peer-reviewed research and formal methods to ensure security, scalability, and sustainability. Our projects include decentralized finance (DeFi), governance, and identity management, aiming to advance the capabilities and adoption of blockchain technology globally.

We invest in the unknown, applying our curiosity and desire for positive change to everything we do. By fueling creativity, innovation, and progress within our teams, our products and services are designed for people to be fearless, to be changemakers.

About Midnight:

IOG's Midnight Tribe is a business technology provider and core contributor to the Midnight Network, a blockchain platform for developing decentralized applications that safeguard personal and commercial data. The Midnight Network is the first blockchain to offer programmable data isolation by leveraging zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to enable selective disclosure of what information is visible on-chain and is designed to help developers implement necessary business policies, such as meeting regulatory requirements.

What the role involves:

As Senior Performance Architect, you will architect and execute solutions to assess and remediate scalability concerns arising from the unique cryptographic capabilities of the Midnight network. This position presents a compelling challenge as you navigate the realms of pioneering research and technology while keeping a sharp focus on fulfilling the dynamic needs of the market. To support you on this challenge, our products have software engineers, product managers, project managers, formal methods specialists, and QA test engineers, with whom you will be required to communicate professionally, effectively, and efficiently. You will also provide technical coordination and assistance across Midnight’s partner ecosystem as needed to augment the skills and capabilities of the performance team. . This role will report directly to the Head of Architecture.

If you are passionate about blockchain and have a proven track record of designing and implementing high performance blockchain systems, we want to hear from you.

Performance Monitoring and Analysis:

• Architect and implement a comprehensive performance and health monitoring infrastructure
• Implement and develop new performance benchmarking frameworks
• Create performance dashboards and alerts to proactively identify and address performance issues
• Collaborate with vendors, partners, and stakeholders where appropriate to conduct performance testing and analysis.
• Create detailed architecture documents, guidelines, and best practices for development teams to follow.

Optimization Initiatives:

• Work closely with the Crypto, Innovation, and Ledger teams to assess optimizations to zero-knowledge proof generation, new cryptographic curves, and improve transaction processing pipeline
• Guide the broader architecture team in architecting scalable solutions, including optimizations for diffusion, message propagation, and state storage

Performance Testing and Validation:

• Design and execute comprehensive performance test suites
• Conduct load testing and stress testing to validate performance improvements
• Implement performance regression testing to ensure ongoing performance stability

Community Engagement and Thought Leadership:

• Contribute to open-source ecosystem tools and applications on performance best practices, as appropriate
• Collaborate with the Hyperledger community and other privacy blockchain initiatives to develop performance standards for the sector
• Lead research and development efforts on next-generation privacy-preserving performance techniques

Who you are:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in the field of performance architecture and engineering, preferably in the blockchain or distributed systems domain
• Proven track record in architecting and implementing high-performance, scalable, and resilient systems
• Expertise in performance monitoring, analysis, and optimization techniques
• Strong programming skills, with proficiency in languages such as Rust, Go, or Python
• Experience in leading cross-functional teams and driving complex projects to completion
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Passion for the blockchain and privacy-preserving technology space
• Helpful to have in-depth understanding of cryptographic protocols, zero-knowledge proofs, and their performance implications
• Demonstrate an in-depth understanding and substantial experience in the implementation of developer tooling, programming languages, and run-time systems.
• Showcase experience in writing developer tooling.
• Bring innovative solutions to tooling design challenges, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in implementation.
• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Are you an IOGer?

Do you find yourself questioning the status quo? Do you tinker with ideas and long to turn those ideas into solutions? Are you able to spark thoughtful debates, bringing out the inquisitiveness in others? Does the promise of continuously growing excite you? Then get ready to reimagine everything you thought wasn’t possible because that’s what it means to be an IOGer - we don’t set limits, we break them. 

• Remote work

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

At IOG, we value diversity and always treat all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.