Distributed Systems Research Engineer
About Heliax
Heliax is a remote-first public goods lab which researches, develops, deploys, and maintains open-source protocols & mechanisms designed to serve the everyday needs of humanity. Using this, we build vertically integrated open-source products and networks that form coherent open systems which are capable of acting as an alternative to existing exploitative paradigms. With team members located around the world, our work culture is characterized by open-allocation, where team members have a high degree of freedom and autonomy in choosing when to work, what to work on, and whom to work with.
Heliax’ work include the Anoma protocol, a novel architecture for blockchains that enables a declarative paradigm for decentralized applications; Namada, a proof-of-stake L1 for interchain asset-agnostic privacy; Juvix and Vamp-IR, in the domain of languages for dApps and ZK circuits.
Overview
Blockchains do not scale to a global user-base of seven billion people.
Distributed systems research engineering at Heliax focuses on designing, building, extending, and maintaining decentralized, permissionless, and censorship-resistant protocols. We are looking for experienced distributed systems engineers that are interested in applying novel research to create high-quality open-source technology and solve outstanding problems in the blockchain space.
As a member of the core protocol engineering team, you will be working on distributed ledger technology implemented in Rust and Go, with a particular focus on distributed systems: consensus algorithms and peer-to-peer networking layers. You’ll work both on the research and implementation side to ensure that our protocols are both theoretically sound and correctly realized in code. This role offers the chance to work closely on compelling cross-disciplinary problems in computer science, systems engineering, cryptography, and economics, and enjoy a high degree of independence in working conditions and prioritization.
Responsibilities
- Produce technical specifications of BFT consensus algorithms and peer-to-peer systems in coordination with other team members
- Analyze consensus protocols for safety, liveness, incentive compatibility under a rational actor model, asymptotic and concrete efficiency, and implementation difficulty
- Implement protocols in performant and cleanly abstracted Rust and/or Go code
- Comprehensively document and test protocols and protocol changes
- Benchmark implementations and adjust both high-level architecture and low-level details in order to optimise for performance while retaining semantic correctness
- Conduct code reviews in coordination with other team members and help maintain a high standard of quality across the codebase
Example Project
Qualifications
- Prior experience with distributed systems such as BFT consensus algorithms
- Familiarity with the Rust and/or Go programming languages
- Self-motivated & self-organized
- Interested in open-source technology and research applied to DLT
Bonus Qualifications
- Prior experience with large scale distributed systems deployed in practice
- Prior experience with network and systems engineering
- Prior experience with database design and optimization
- Prior experience in blockchain technology
- Prior experience implementing cryptography
Misc
Remote or local (Zürich/Zug, Berlin). When remote, preferred if mostly located within (+/- 7 hours) Central European time zones. Ideally someone who enjoys nature and hiking 🏔️.