Data Scientist at Cryptocurrency Startup

Chorus One is a leading cryptocurrency staking provider in Europe securing over $1bn in assets and operating nodes on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Solana, Cosmos, Ethereum 2.0, Terra, and Polkadot. We also research, design, and build staking and interoperability solutions to enable a richer multi-chain ecosystem.

To supplement our extraordinary growth in 2021, we are seeking a Data Scientist to help us collect and analyze network data with the goal to optimize our performance, assist our decision making, and to maximize our customers' rewards from participating in decentralized networks.

Operating nodes is becoming more than a DevOps exercise as decentralized finance is maturing on Proof-of-Stake networks and staking protocols become increasingly complex; exposing node operators to a variety of optimization problems. As an example, the indexing protocol The Graph requires node operators to price their services and compete against other data providers. Additionally, decentralized exchange protocols and other DeFi applications bring opportunities to node operators to increase their revenues by ordering transactions (often referred to as MEV). The data science role will work closely with our platforms and research team to lead our exploration of these cutting-edge problem statements ensuring that we are providing the most efficient and performant service on the networks we support without exploiting users of these platforms.

People at Chorus One come from all walks of life; we believe in the importance of carving out more space for diversity in the tech industry and bring down barriers to entry in the blockchain space to those underrepresented in the industry. We are aware of the systemic obstacles faced by women, non-binary people, people of color, and other minorities in the workplace, and we are taking active steps to making Chorus One, and the blockchain industry more broadly, a safe, inclusive space where all the voices are heard and equally matter.

Your Responsibilities:

• Build a data pipeline for the various networks we operate on to collect data about our nodes earnings, uptime, and other relevant metrics for internal usage (e.g. optimization, analytics, and accounting reports).
• Solve optimization problems for protocols we operate on with the goal to maximize returns for our delegators and us, e.g. cost modelling and subgraph allocation on The Graph, minimizing gas expenditure, or optimizing pricing for transaction routing on Connext.
• Work closely with our research and engineering team to formulate and execute a sustainable MEV strategy for Chorus One.

The ideal candidate:

The ideal candidate should be able to combine the knowledge of data science with software engineering to build data pipelines that can extract, analyze and produce actionable outputs from blockchain data. They should be able to map business questions to mathematical models and solve those algorithmically at a production level.

From the engineering perspective:

• Can dig into blockchain source code and relevant RPC docs to pull the required data.
• Can develop automated data pipelines to obtain and process necessary data from APIs (preferably in the cloud).
• Ability to write programs/fast-prototype solutions in Python, Golang or JavaScript.
• Ability to understand (blockchain) codebases typically in Golang or Rust.

From the data science perspective:

• Can map business problems to mathematical models taking into account cryptoeconomic protocol designs.
• Can determine what data is needed and how to get it to accomplish the task.
• Can develop algorithms to solve the problems.

From a business perspective:

• Can work closely with the research team to understand cryptoeconomic protocol designs and implementations with the goal to identify data requirements and business opportunities.
• Can report on a high level with regards to design, progress and performance of developed algorithms.
• Can configure/develop visualization dashboards for the analyzed data, algorithms and their (financial) performance.

In addition:

• You can take initiative and work independently.
• You are able to work in a remote team with different stakeholders. E.g. from working with the business team to determine requirements for data projects to helping the infrastructure team automate processes that make use of the produced algorithms and data.
• You have a private interest in cryptocurrencies and are active in the community looking for a full-time role. We are especially interested in individuals with expertise in staking and/or decentralized finance. Bonus points for people that have already experimented with decentralized protocols, e.g. building your own trading bots to arbitrage between DEXes or to trigger protocol liquidations, running your own blockchain nodes, etc.

If you think that you can fulfill part of these requirements and are looking for a way to develop in the other ones, this is a genuinely challenging role to help you make the jump to the most exciting industry in the world.

Benefits

• Autonomy, a friendly and supportive work environment and the opportunity for rapid growth.
• Competitive fixed salary (USD 80-120k) + equity, a brand new laptop, a USD 3,000 a year training stipend, and a cryptocurrency starter kit.
• All-expense paid quarterly team retreats at nice destinations (Coronavirus permitting). Past retreats took place in Egypt, Serbia, Kenya, USA, South Korea, and Dubai.
• Remote work
• Work on state of the art protocols that lay the foundation for an open, transparent, and programmable financial system.