Research Scientist – Cryptography

Riverside Research; Lexington (MA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Riverside Research in Lexington, MA seeks a Research Scientist – Cryptography to design, prototype, and evaluate cryptographic solutions. You will contribute across cryptography, formal methods, programming languages, and systems software, communicating results to both technical and nontechnical audiences.

A strong candidate will have experience with MPC, DKG, PIR, or PPML, and the ability to obtain a U.S. government security clearance. U.S. citizenship is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, cybersecurity, or a related field; 5+ years of relevant research or engineering experience. Advanced degree preferred.
• Research experience in cryptography and cryptographic protocol development.
• Experience implementing cryptographic schemes, primitives, and multiparty protocols.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.

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.

Skills

Cryptography research

Protocol development

Prototype cryptography

Formal methods knowledge

Technical communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/related field

Tools

Rust programming language

Job description

Riverside Overview

Riverside Research is an independent National Security Nonprofit dedicated to research and development in the national interest. We provide high-end technical services, research and development, and prototype solutions to some of the country’s most challenging technical problems. All Riverside Research opportunities require U.S. Citizenship.

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 – Cryptographyto 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.

Global Comp

$120,000 - $180,000 This represents the typical compensation range for this position based on experience, location and other factors.

Closing Statement

Riverside Research Institute is a not-for-profit, technology-oriented defense company, where service to our customers and support of our staff is our overall mission. Riverside is an affirmative action-equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws regarding recruitment and hiring. Riverside offers comprehensive compensation and benefit packages to our employees. Riverside bases its employment decisions solely on technical experience, qualifications and other job-related criteria related to our organizational purpose as a not-for-profit company, and without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, physical or mental disability, veteran’s status or any other status legally protected by applicable federal, state, and local law.