Protocol Researcher

What We're Building

ZK proofs are one of the most critical technologies to blockchain scaling, interoperability and privacy, but are too complex for most developers today. Succinct’s mission is to make zero knowledge proofs accessible to any developer.

SP1 is a state of the art zkVM with performance that rivals custom ZK circuits and lets developers use ZK with normal programming languages, like Rust. The Succinct Prover Network, under active development, is a hosted infrastructure layer for any application to outsource proof-generation for open-source proof systems.

Today, top teams in the space, including Celestia, Wormhole, Lido, Avail, Near, and Gnosis are using Succinct’s infrastructure to build with ZKPs. We have a track record of shipping excellent products and cutting-edge technical work in ZK and have significant revenue from our customers.

We recently announced our $55 million raise across our Seed and Series A led by Paradigm, the best investor in crypto. Our team is still small but incredibly strong, and we are looking for exceptional people who are excited to work hard on challenging and impactful problems in a fast-paced environment. Our office is located in San Francisco and we have a strong preference for candidates based there for this role, but are open to exceptional remote candidates.

The Role

We are looking for a researcher to collaborate with and scale Succinct’s research efforts, and increase our public presence of the existing research that we do. Succinct founders have previously written and presented a variety of lower-case r research about ZK bridging, interoperability and shared sequencing and are looking for someone to jam with on similar topics. This role will involve analyzing new protocols in the crypto and ZK ecosystem and relating it to Succinct’s roadmap. These findings will inform the internal Succinct product roadmap and also be written up for consumption by a crypto-native audience. We believe that Succinct’s vision benefits from being deeply immersed with the latest research advances–as a result, this role has extremely high-leverage and will involve close collaboration with the founders and influence over strategy, growth, marketing and the product.

This role is a great fit for someone who is deeply crypto-native with excellent written communication who is passionate about conducting open-ended research related to ZK, relating it to Succinct’s roadmap and conveying those findings to a crypto-native audience.

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of existing crypto protocols and blockchain architecture

• High-level understanding of basics of ZK and why ZK is important to the future of blockchain

• Excellent written communication skills around presenting research findings in an understandable way that appeals to crypto-natives

• Previous track record of crisp writing on blockchain-related, complex technical topics 

• Passion for researching a wide variety of domains and ability to pick up new domains quickly

• Ownership mindset 

Nice to have

• Strong understanding of ZK cryptography and/or some coding background

Location: Everyone on our team is located in San Francisco and works together in-person. Ideally, we’re looking for someone who enjoys in-person work and is already in San Francisco or willing to relocate (we can cover relocation costs). For senior candidates who are an exceptional fit, we’d consider a remote position as long as you’re available to onboard in-person for the first few months.

Benefits

• Above-market salary and generous equity compensation

• Health, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their dependents

• Lunch and dinner provided at the office

• Optional, company-paid travel to events and conferences

Even if the listed qualifications don't seem like an exact match, passionate and enthusiastic people who love to quickly learn are always welcome! Feel free to reach out or apply regardless and we would love to chat.