Cryptographic Engineer (Remote, USA) === At [Bolt Labs](https://boltlabs.tech), our mission is to build usable, secure, and scalable infrastructure to enable everyone to securely store their assets while preserving the privacy of their transactions. To achieve this mission, we are building [Lock Keeper](https://github.com/boltlabs-inc/key-mgmt): a secure digital asset manager and specialized key management system that helps people store, retrieve, and use the private keys associated with their digital assets. We’re building a security-first system with layers of cryptography, hardware protection, and misuse-resistant design. We are hiring cryptographic engineers to design and build out various components of the system. Some elements we will need to focus on include: * Distributed key generation * Threshold signatures for various signature schemes * General-purpose secure multi-party computation * User authentication with distributed, asymmetric PAKE You’ll work with a team to build the cryptographic foundations needed to protect digital assets and educate developers on practical use of your tools. This role includes the development of general-purpose cryptography software designed by and for cryptographers, as well as application-specific interfaces to encapsulate protocol logic into a developer-friendly package. **Please note that for this remote role, we can only consider candidates with current authorization to work in the United States.** Why work at [Bolt Labs](https://boltlabs.tech)? --- * **Values**: We care about building technology that makes a positive difference for the privacy of people everywhere. Our goal is to create an inclusive and supportive work environment, where we all have the resources to learn, grow, and work collaboratively to improve the state of privacy today. * **Open source**: You'll have an opportunity to contribute significantly to the open-source ecosystem, from which we both substantially benefit and to which we give back. * **Flexibility**: We are a small, fully remote, focused team, offering maximum flexibility and minimum bureaucracy. If you're able to attend meetings, collaborate effectively, and do your work, when and where you work are up to you. We encourage you to value your life’s balance. * **Research**: You will be working to solve meaningful, never-before-solved challenges with a world-class team of scientists and engineers in the fields of applied cryptography, distributed systems, programming languages, and more... and we're excited to learn from the unique insights that you will bring. Compensation & Benefits --- * **Flexible Salary Range**: The salary range for this position is competitive with market rates for the position across the United States. Bolt believes that everyone should be compensated fairly and equitably. We set our salary ranges using compensation data from industry accepted market sources and will be the same regardless of location. * **Benefits**: Fully subsidized health, dental, and vision insurance for you (and 50% subsidized for your partner and family), equity in the company, a funded bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, and 4 weeks of paid vacation time per year, not including sick days and holidays. In the role of **Cryptographic Engineer**, you will get to… --- * Design and implement production quality, misuse-resistant APIs for general-purpose cryptographic libraries. * Build application-specific wrappers around core cryptographic libraries, focusing on security and usability by software developers. * Conduct literature reviews to identify and compare cryptographic components and make recommendations based on security, efficiency, standardization, and other factors. * Act as a cryptographic resource for software developers, explaining the tools you’ve developed, bringing up nuances that effect the larger development process, and otherwise setting them up for success using your libraries. ### On day one we'll expect you to... * Write cryptography software for production systems and discuss the field with a level of comfort. It’s fine if you haven’t worked with all the primitives we use, but you should have experience reading algorithms papers, discussing threat models and security assumptions, and considering the pitfalls and security concerns that arise when implementing them in practice. * Have professional programming experience in any language * Use strong testing skills, both in writing automated tests and using fuzzing techniques to catch bugs. ### Added bonus if you have... * Direct experience working with any of the cryptographic components listed above. * Programming experience in Rust. * Experience with remote collaboration. * Self-motivated work style; an ability to schedule your own days and make progress on projects without close supervision. * Applied experience deploying cryptography in production systems. * Applied experience developing custody solutions for digital assets, multi-party computation, and HSM/SGX. **Please note that for this remote role, we can only consider candidates with current authorization to work in the United States.** How to apply --- [Submit an application here!](https://airtable.com/shrcPH7PiD4doXBSl) We will request the following information: * your **name** and **pronouns**, * your **resume** or **CV** (no page limit), * a **brief cover letter** describing your interest in the role, and * a **sample or description of your technical work**. Your work sample can be one or more public links to smart contracts you’ve worked on and/or projects you’ve maintained. If your best work has happened behind closed doors, it can be a description of the work you did in enough detail for us to understand it. What to expect in the interview process --- 1. **Initial interview**: We’ll chat with you about your background, prior experience with Rust, motivation for working at Bolt Labs, and other introductory things. We’ll also ask you to tell us more about the work sample(s) or description(s) you submitted with your application. There won’t be any surprise pop-quizzes during this interview; this is about getting to know you on your terms. 2. **Zero-whiteboard technical interview**: In this interview, we would like to request that you present an in-depth technical walkthrough of a project that is representative of your best work and strengths. Ultimately, we hope to learn from you and engage in a conversation on design decisions and cryptographic challenges. We will share guidelines for topics that you can consider covering, but don't worry about writing a “talk”. We don’t expect you to spend more than a few hours preparing, just enough to have a meaningful conversation and show us your insights. In this conversation, we will also share more about our research and product goals. We’re also excited to hear (and answer) your questions about our work, technical directions, and overall vision. 3. **Final team interview**: After the technical interview, we'll let you know whether we're interested in moving forward to a final interview where you'll get an opportunity to talk to the entire team at Bolt. You'll be able to ask any questions you still have about our culture, our future plans, our upcoming technical challenges, and whatever else comes to your mind. 4. **Offer**: After the final interview, we'll let you know whether we're interested in extending an offer. If we extend an offer, our team members will continue to be available for you to ask anyone any questions that might have come up for you since the last interview. We recognize that the interview process is also an opportunity for you to evaluate us as an organization. At any point in this process, we may realize that we're not a great fit for each other. If it’s the case on our end, we'll try to let you know as soon as possible. All of our interviews will be conducted over video chat. We want you to be comfortably able to show yourself off in the best possible light. If there are any accommodations we can make during the interview process to make things easier for you, please let us know. At any point, please feel free to email any questions to careers@boltlabs.io. We look forward to meeting you! --- Bolt Labs is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.