Applied Cryptographer

About the role:

We are looking for an Applied Cryptographer to join the Hashgraph engineering team. You will design, build, and integrate privacy-by-design features for enterprise solutions built on Hedera technology. This is a greenfield initiative at the cutting edge of decentralized systems and applied cryptography, with a focus on confidentiality, anonymity, history masking, and end-to-end security at scale.

This is a highly technical role where you will transform the newest research ideas into practical applications by designing, implementing, and optimizing cryptographic primitives and protocols (e.g., ZKPs, MPC, homomorphic encryption, Trusted Execution Environments) and secure smart contracts. You will collaborate closely with existing in-house cryptography researchers, partner with Product to translate customer privacy requirements into a clear roadmap, evaluate emerging solutions across the ecosystem, and work side-by-side with our Hashgraph engineers to prototype, benchmark, and produtize capabilities in HashSphere.

If you enjoy deep technical challenges, have a strong command of modern cryptography, and have experience turning advanced research into reliable, high-performance systems while navigating confidentiality-performance trade-offs, this is an exciting, impact-driven role shaping the privacy foundation for some of the world’s largest enterprises.

Key responsibilities:

• Identify cutting-edge cryptographic protocols and algorithms for blockchain applications, with a focus on security, performance, and scalability.


• Stay current with emerging trends in cryptography, cybersecurity, and blockchain technology, including advancements in zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), multi-party computation (MPC), and key management, and privacy mechanisms for confidentiality and anonymity.


• Collaborate closely with Product and participate in select customer discussions to understand privacy requirements, use cases, constraints, and success criteria, translating them into clear technical specifications.


• Work closely with our Hashgraph engineers to prototype, benchmark, and productionize privacy solutions.


• Work with cross-functional teams - including hashgraph engineers, blockchain developers, security engineers, and product managers - to integrate cryptographic solutions into HashSphere’s core platform, services, and SDKs.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D or MSc in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related field is required. 


• Proven professional experience in cryptography or a related cybersecurity field, with a focus on blockchain and distributed systems.


• In depth understanding of blockchain fundamentals, including consensus, EVM, layer 2 solutions, rollups, etc.


• Practical knowledge of confidentiality, anonymity, and history masking approaches (e.g., selective disclosure, transaction graph obfuscation, data minimization) and how to evaluate their security-performance trade-offs.


• Strong proficiency in programming languages relevant to blockchain development, such as Rust, Solidity, Go and Java. 


• Experience with advanced cryptographic concepts like ZKPs, MPC, homomorphic encryption, and threshold cryptography is highly desirable.


• Demonstrated ability to partner with Product to gather customer requirements and translate them into technical designs, prototypes, and successful launches.


• Strong verbal and written communication skills to effectively collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Ways To Stand Out From The Crowd:

• Expertise in major blockchain platforms like Ethereum and Hedera, and privacy-focused platforms such as Aztec and Aleo.


• Working knowledge of privacy-first and enterprise DLT platforms–their privacy guarantees, interoperability patterns, and enterprise fit - with a practice of actively tracking ecosystem developments, standards, and provider roadmaps.


• Proven track record shipping privacy features (ZK/MPC/TEE) to production, with benchmarks, circuit/parameter optimization, and clear confidentiality–performance trade-offs.