Research Scientist – Cryptography

Position Overview

Within Riverside Research, the Open Innovation Center (OIC) conducts internally funded and contract-funded R&D to develop technologies with lasting practical impact. The Secure and Resilient Systems (SRS) group within OIC focuses on rigorous approaches to building trustworthy computing systems.

SRS seeks a Research Scientist – Cryptography to design, develop, prototype and evaluate cryptographic solutions (primitives, protocols, systems, etc.). The researcher will contribute to a range of collaborative R&D projects, working with colleagues across formal methods, cryptography, programming languages, and systems software.

We are looking for a cryptographer interested in applying their skillset to a wide-range of problems including, but not limited to, multiparty computation (MPC), cryptographic device design and implementation, and cryptographic analysis. A strong candidate has worked on concretely efficient protocols for problems such as (but not limited to) distributed key generation (DKG), private information retrieval (PIR), or privacy-preserving machine learning (PPML), and on formally proving the security of said schemes.

Responsibilities

• Conduct cryptography research, including designing and proving the security of new solutions.
• Develop prototype implementations of cryptographic solutions and analyze existing cryptographic solutions.
• Collaborate on multidisciplinary research with colleagues in formal methods, cryptography, programming languages, systems software, and related areas.
• Communicate research results through publications, reports, presentations, and briefings to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Support research planning and proposal development by identifying new opportunities and contributing technical approaches.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, cybersecurity, or a related field; 5+ years of relevant research or engineering experience. Advanced degree preferred. Equivalent combinations of education and experience will be considered.
• Research experience in cryptography and cryptographic protocol development.
• Experience in implementing cryptographic schemes, primitives, and multiparty protocols.
• Ability to formulate technical problems, evaluate alternative approaches, and conduct research independently and collaboratively.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly in writing and in presentations, and to collaborate effectively with researchers from different disciplines.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.

Desired:

• Experience implementing cryptography with the Rust programming language.
• Experience formally verifying cryptographic implementations or protocols, compilers, operating systems, hypervisors, or other security-critical software.
• Experience developing protocols proven in the Universal Composability (UC) model of security.
• Experience evaluating implementations for cryptographic weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
• Familiarity with recent post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards and primitives.
• A publication record or other demonstrated contributions to research in security or cryptography.
• Existing TS security clearance.