Lead Protocol Engineer

Job Title : Lead Protocol Engineer

Location : Iselin NJ (3 days hybrid work)

Duration: 12 Months Assignment

Job Description:

Responsibilities

Core Protocol Development: Architect and build a custom blockchain application using Go Cosmos SDK and CometBFT (Tendermint)

Cryptographic Implementation: Implement and optimize privacy-preserving primitives specifically Pedersen Commitments and Bulletproofs (Range Proofs) ensuring no trusted setup is required

Consensus Customization: Engineer custom ABCI extensions (specifically PrepareProposal and Vote Extensions) to implement an on-chain Multi-Party Computation (MPC) mixing network

State Machine Design: Design a custom KVStore state machine that manages homomorphic encrypted balances (Elliptic Curve points) instead of plaintext integers

Performance Engineering: Optimize cryptographic operations (scalar multiplication point addition) for low latency and high throughput in a distributed environment

Auditing Infrastructure: Build secure off-chain query layers and view key mechanisms that allow for granular permissioned regulatory auditing

Required Qualifications:

5 years of Specialty Software Engineering experience or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience training military experience education

3 years of experience in backend or systems programming with expert-level proficiency in Go (Golang)

6 months of experience with Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)

1 year of experience with BFT consensus algorithms P2P networking and state replication; reliable distributed systems experience

Desired Qualifications:

Blockchain Core: Deep experience with Cosmos SDK and CometBFT. Comfort building custom modules and modifying consensus logic not just deploying smart contracts

Pedersen Commitments (Homomorphic encryption properties)

Zero-Knowledge Proofs (specifically Bulletproofs or Sigma protocols)

Math-to-Code: Demonstrated ability to read academic whitepapers/preprints and translate mathematical specifications into functioning code

Experience with MPC (Multi-Party Computation) or Verifiable Secret Sharing (VSS) schemes

Familiarity with the Ristretto255 curve or libraries like gnark-crypto

Background in FinTech payment systems or high-frequency trading platforms

Understanding of the Account Model vs. UTXO Model trade-offs in privacy-preserving ledgers