About Protocol Labs

Protocol Labs drives breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. Protocol Labs is a product-development lab, but behind the protocols and tools we build, behind the research and implementations, are passionate people, teammates, and community members. Most teams in the Protocol Labs Network are fully distributed and work remotely around the world. Engineers, researchers, and operators work in the open to improve the internet — humanity's most important technology — as we explore new advances at the intersection of many exciting fields (crypto, networks, distributed systems) and cultures (startups, research, open-source, distributed work).

Key Summary

Seeking entrepreneurial program developer and manager to assist research initiatives and support independent research-development labs across multiple disciplines related to or sponsored by the Protocol Labs Network. This includes collaboration building , grant program design and management, intellectual outreach, publication and presentation support, hiring, and related efforts to improve research-development.

Research at Protocol Labs

We’re not an ordinary research lab. We’re working hard to build the core protocols of the decentralized web pursuant to our vision for the future of the Internet. As part of our research team, you’ll be enabling outcomes at the forefront of our mission. Our research team is granted both the freedom to develop knowledge by working on novel applications and a responsibility to contribute those skills toward advancing the flagship projects of Protocol Labs and the research endeavors of leading institutions in the field. Our efforts range from supporting pure basic research to building agile, modular “research-development” labs dedicated to turning cutting-edge research into workable technologies. You’ll feel at home working with us if your knowledge and optimism enable you to craft creative solutions working around evolving needs.

As a Research Program Manager at Protocol Labs you will 

  • Develop and implement new research initiatives and research groups to advance research in the PL Network’s core domains of interest (consensus, cryptoeconomics, cryptography, networking, metaresearch, and distributed systems)   
  • Develop and implement innovative research funding programs and research coordination mechanisms, and coordinate public goods research efforts and experiments with the Network Funding team.
  • Support researchers and research labs in Network Research and EngRes. This includes managerial responsibilities (1-on-1 meetings with researchers, involvement in cyclical performance reviews and feedback), programmatic improvements, collaboration building, grant program management, and the development of improved scientific tooling. 
  • Craft Protocol Labs’ presence in the research community by expediting the results-to-dissemination pipeline, providing thought leadership on technological and metaresearch questions, and otherwise improving the visibility and impact of Protocol Labs Research output.

Minimum Qualifications

  • MA/MS/MSc degree in an engineering, mathematical, or computational discipline
  • 2 years experience as a researcher in academia, industry, or government
  • Deep interest in scientific research
  • Experience coordinating and aligning groups to work toward a common goal
  • Excellent communication skills
  • An ability to think across research, product, and business considerations

Highly-valued bonus points

  • PhD degree in a science or technology field
  • Significant coursework in computer science, networking, or distributed systems
  • Experience managing or working in distributed research consortia
  • Experience applying for and managing research grants
  • Knowledge of how research labs are run and funded
  • Experience in incentive or mechanism design

About Network Goods

The Network Goods teams (Network Research, Network Funding, and Research Acceleration) work largely asynchronously and remotely via Discord, Slack, Notion, github, and video conference, although we take advantage of regular opportunities to meet in person for work sprints, colloquia, and conferences. Attendance and participation in relevant research meetings, hackathons, workshops, and conferences is also encouraged. We strive to document our decision-making processes in text and default to open and transparent communication and record-keeping wherever possible. We currently use a very flexible github-based Agile process to organize and share our work-in-progress, priorities, and roadmaps. We think in public on the Protocol Labs Research blog and host a lively Research Seminar, Research Saloon, Discord server, and Journal Club, as well as occasional larger research events. We believe intentional development of technology can lead to a better, more empowering world for all of humanity.

#LI-TO1

What’s it like to work at Protocol Labs?
 
Protocol Labs' mission is to improve humanity’s most important technology, the Internet. We build protocols, systems, and tools to improve how it works. Today, we are focused on how we store, locate, and move information. Our projects include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, and more.
 
As a distributed team, we hire anywhere in the world, and at various levels of experience (entry, senior, staff). We look for people with unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds.
 
We have a great benefits package, including parental leave, contributions to your retirement, competitive pay, and unlimited time off. For U.S.-based employees, we also provide platinum-level health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family.

If you’re passionate about the future of computing and a more democratized internet, we want to talk to you.

 

GDPR for Job Applicants and Candidates

When you apply to a job on this site, the personal data contained in your application will be collected by Protocol Labs, Inc. (“Protocol Labs”), which is located at 427 N Tatnall St #51207, Wilmington, Delaware 19801 and can be contacted by emailing legalrequests[at]protocol.ai.  Protocol Labs’ data protection team can be contacted via legalrequests[at]protocol.ai.  Your personal data will be processed for the purposes of managing Protocol Labs’ recruitment related activities, which include setting up and conducting interviews and tests for applicants, evaluating and assessing the results thereto, and as is otherwise needed in the recruitment and hiring processes. Such processing is legally permissible under Art. 6(1)(f) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) as necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by Protocol Labs, which are the solicitation, evaluation, and selection of applicants for employment.

Your personal data will be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States of America and engaged by Protocol Labs to help manage its recruitment and hiring process on Protocol Labs’ behalf. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, your personal data will be transferred to the United States once you submit it through this site. Because the European Union Commission has determined that United States data privacy laws do not ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data collected from EU data subjects, the transfer will be subject to appropriate additional safeguards.

Your personal data will be retained by Protocol Labs as long as Protocol Labs determines it is necessary to evaluate your application for employment or to assist in the hiring process. Under the GDPR, you have the right to request access to your personal data, to request that your personal data be rectified or erased, and to request that processing of your personal data be restricted. You also have the right to data portability. In addition, you may lodge a complaint with an EU supervisory authority.

 

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