Research Engineer

About us:
We are Data Science UA, and we are a fast-growing IT service company. We are proud of developing the Data Science community in Ukraine for more than 7 years. Data Science UA unites all researchers, engineers, and developers around Data Science and related areas. We conduct events on machine learning, computer vision, intelligence, information science, and the use of artificial intelligence for business in various fields.

About the client:
Our client is an Ukraine-based gaming startup. They’re creating a complete solution to disrupt the gaming world. Their vision is to put games and virtual worlds on chain, which means opportunities for new in-game economics, extensibility (especially for modding communities), and governance.

It is high time to join an early-stage startup and make a real impact on the gaming world!

Their founder’s team has already accomplished a lot — 2 times a16z backed, founded a multi-app company with 250 million downloads, launched a fund that gathered $10M+ for humanitarian needs, and their own title with 56k+ users.

About role:
They are looking for a Research Engineer, who will join their team. This role is dedicated to applied research. In their initial phases, they are committed to understanding and leveraging the state-of-the-art, while in future phases, they will advance it. Primarily, the researcher will contribute to the design of new architectural solutions.

Requirements:

• 3+ years of experience as Research Engineer.
• Strong background in Computer Science and Math.
• Familiar with cryptography and/or blockchain stack, including front-end, back-end, smart contracts, and protocol layers.
• Experience building blockchain protocols or applications.
• Ability to break down complicated concepts into simple language.
• Writing technical articles, specifications, and white papers.
• Deep understanding of cryptography and security in the context of blockchain.
• Comfortable reviewing code in the absence of documentation.
• Some experience with Go (preferred), Rust, JavaScript (at least one) + Solidity.
• Understanding of distributed systems & peer-to-peer network protocols.
• Ability to proactively plan, lead, execute, provide updates, and be accountable for projects.
• Strong interpersonal skills when collaborating with users and teammates.
• Eager to constantly learn, ask questions, and deepen your understanding.

Nice to have:

• Understanding of how online game systems are designed is a big plus.
• Experience writing academic articles and publications
• Masters in Computer Science or a Doctorate is preferred.

Responsibilities:

• Design, specify and verify distributed systems by leveraging formal and experimental techniques.
• Build proof of concepts and prepare executable specifications for the development team.
• Regularly going through papers, bringing new ideas and staying up-to-date.
• Conducting theoretical and practical analysis of the performance of distributed systems.
• Collaborating with both internal and external contributors.
• Presenting internal and external research results (internal documents, blog posts and presentations).
• Architect and prototype novel blockchain-based and blockchain-adjacent software solutions to enable new features, improved performance, cross-chain integrations, and more for our clients.
• Write proposals for new research and development, including detailed project plans with milestones and developer time/cost estimates.
• Write specifications and supporting documentation to help developers implement our solutions.
• Peer review research, proposals, and code.

We offer:

• Flexible work hours.
• Remote/Hybrid work options.
• Hardware (if needed).
• Unlimited vacations.
• Professional development opportunities.
• Team buildings.
• Last, but not least — we offer equity.

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