Senior Researcher, Consensus

Founded by Jump Trading alums, Monad Labs is a tech startup using low-latency programming, compiler optimization, and multithreaded computing to build an ultra-high-performance smart contract platform. The work entails building an optimal stack-based VM that supports multithreaded computation, as well as developing and implementing an efficient Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) algorithm enabling a network of nodes to come to consensus. We recently raised $225M in series A funding to scale our team in bringing the Monad blockchain to production.

The Role

We are looking for an exceptional Senior Researcher with significant academic and applied experience in blockchain protocols. You will play a leading role in designing improvements to all aspects of the Monad Layer 1 protocol including the BFT consensus mechanism, p2p networking layer, light client protocol, staking protocol, working closely with our engineering team to implement and test these changes.

Who you are

• Resourceful and self-motivated
• Team oriented, collaborative, and a good communicator
• Adaptive; able to make meaningful contributions in a fast-paced environment
• Opinionated about software architecture
• Motivated to push the limits of system performance through repeated optimization
• Interested in building high-value fault-tolerant distributed systems

Requirements:

• Research experience with BFT consensus mechanisms, including a record of publications in the space
• Practical experience with BFT consensus mechanisms and gossip protocols
• Excellent knowledge of how BFT consensus mechanisms are used in practice in existing blockchains
• Experience with light client protocol designs, efficient state verification or bridging designs using light clients
• Some experience writing code, e.g. for network simulations

Bonus:

• Experience with related fields (cryptography, economics)
• Contributions to open source projects
• Startup experience

What you’ll be doing

• Designing and optimizing improvements to Monad’s Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism and p2p networking layer
• Proving properties of these improvements under average and worst-case scenarios
• Researching and designing state-of-the-art light client protocols
• Developing tests to assess behavior under corner cases

Salary and benefits

Minimum full-time salary of $200,000.  (**This is not a guarantee of compensation or salary; a final offer amount may vary based on factors including but not limited to experience and geographic location.)

Monad Labs’ benefits include unlimited and encouraged paid time off; health coverage; home office equipment stipend; monthly wellness/fitness stipend; and 10 company-observed holidays.

The majority of our team is in NYC and works together a few days a week.  We are open to remote candidates, with a preference for candidates based in NYC.