Applied Cryptography Engineer

About the role

As an Applied Cryptography Engineer at DNA Protocol, you will help define what a digital credential or scoped proof establishes, what it reveals and which trust assumptions it depends on. Our privacy-first identity workflows connect private inputs with verifiable claims and XRPL evidence.

Research and prototype commitments, selective disclosure and zero-knowledge verification for concrete product needs. Bind proofs to their intended policy and request context, assess sensitive-data applications including genomics, and explain the limits of cryptographic verification without equating it with real-world identity assurance.

Responsibilities

• Write threat models for credential commitments, scoped presentations, issuer acceptance and verification workflows, including sensitive genomic applications.
• Design proof statements and context bindings for policy, audience, challenge and expiry to address ambiguity, replay and unintended disclosure.
• Evaluate existing cryptographic libraries and proof systems before introducing new constructions.
• Prototype circuits or verification components and measure proving cost, verification cost, and operational complexity.
• Investigate linkage, enumeration, and re-identification risks rather than treating a hash as automatic anonymity.
• Prepare technical specifications, reproducible examples, and review material for independent security assessment.

Qualifications

• A strong foundation in applied cryptography, commitment schemes, digital signatures, and security reasoning.
• Hands-on experience implementing or evaluating cryptographic protocols in Rust, Go, TypeScript, or a comparable language.
• Ability to distinguish a proof of data integrity from claims about identity, consent, provenance, or biological accuracy.
• Experience writing precise technical documentation and assessing implementation-level attack surfaces.
• Comfort collaborating with product and domain specialists to simplify requirements before choosing cryptographic machinery.

Helpful Experience

• Experience with zero-knowledge proof tooling, circuit development, or cryptographic audits.
• Research or engineering work involving privacy-preserving credentials or sensitive datasets.
• Familiarity with ledger integration constraints and verifier deployment tradeoffs.

What Success Looks Like

• A reviewed threat model and clearly bounded proof statement for a priority workflow.
• A reproducible prototype with measured costs and documented limitations.
• An implementation and review plan that avoids unsupported privacy or security claims.

How to Apply

Send a CV or professional profile and a short note about your interest in this role. Include links to relevant work where appropriate. Please do not send genetic data, patient information, private keys, or confidential employer materials.

Location, engagement type, and compensation for this role are to be confirmed.