About Protocol Labs

Protocol Labs drives breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. Protocol Labs is a product-development lab, but behind the protocols and tools we build, behind the research and implementations, are passionate people, teammates, and community members. Most teams in the Protocol Labs Network are fully distributed and work remotely around the world. Engineers, researchers, and operators work in the open to improve the internet ?" humanity's most important technology ?" as we explore new advances at the intersection of many exciting fields (crypto, networks, distributed systems) and cultures (startups, research, open-source, distributed work).

Key Summary:

The Network Goods team at Protocol Labs is looking for a startup systems engineer to integrate, improve, and manage our internal tools and services, as well as public-facing technology supporting public goods research and funding.

Network Goods at Protocol Labs

Protocol Labs is a research, development, and deployment organization that builds tools to move science forward faster. The goal of the Network Goods team is to increase the amount and quality of network goods being created, in order to improve the likelihood of a good future.

Our team is granted both the freedom to develop knowledge by working on novel applications and a responsibility to contribute those skills toward advancing the mission of Protocol Labs. You'll feel at home working with us if your knowledge and optimism enable you to craft creative solutions working around evolving needs.

As part of the Network Goods team and as its technology lead, you'll be contributing directly to our mission of developing and guiding high-impact initiatives to build public goods. You'll be working across the different sub-teams to ensure technical and non-technical roadblocks are overcome and that our technology stack supports efficient work and experimentation.

Here, no request is too big or too small to handle. Significant measures of our success are the time we save the team and the improved outcomes we create. There is no typical day: you might find yourself fielding internal support requests, working with researchers to build a decision analysis tool, leading the integration with a third-party grants platform, deploying new features on our website, or flying around the world to support the technology needs for an event.

As a startup systems engineer at Protocol Labs you will...

Optimize our tools so that we can interact and support our organization and external partners efficiently and effectively. Proactively work with the team to understand their productivity pain points.
Research new internal tools and services that make us more efficient. No existing solution you can find? Build the solution we need, work with an external vendor, or launch a community bounty.
Work with researchers and research managers, within and outside Protocol Labs, to understand requirements and workflows and source or create appropriate tooling to enable experimentation.
Manage traditional IT support requests including onboarding and off-boarding employees to our internal tools and services.

You may be a fit for this role if you have...

Experience in one or more of front-end development, DevOps and infrastructure, project management, IT security, systems integration, data engineering
Strong analytical, problem solving, and interpersonal skills
Deep flexibility and creativity with the ability to adapt to fast-changing needs and priorities
Passion for supporting internal teams and projects
A bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience) in a scientific, mathematical, or engineering discipline

Bonus points if you have...

A track record of building, maintaining, and driving the adoption of user-oriented tooling
Familiarity with web3 concepts and the ability to reason about web3 technologies that can be incorporated into PLN tooling or built to support network-wide needs
Research experience in a scientific, mathematical, or engineering field
An interest in learning more about epistemology or the normative implications of technological development

What's it like to work at Protocol Labs?

Protocol Labs mission is to improve computing technology to push humanity forward. We have been focused on building protocols, systems, and tools to improve how we store, locate, and move information directly, permissionlessly, and trustlessly. Our projects include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, drand, and more.

As a distributed team, we hire anywhere in the world, and at various levels of experience (entry, senior, staff). We look for people with unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds. We have a great benefits package, including parental leave, contributions to your retirement, competitive pay, and unlimited time off. For U.S.-based employees, we also provide platinum-level health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family.

The Network Goods teams (Network Research, Network Funding, and Research Acceleration) works largely asynchronously and remotely via Discord, Slack, Notion, GitHub, and video conference, although we take advantage of opportunities (roughly between monthly and quarterly) to meet in person for work sprints, colloquia, and conferences. Attendance and participation in relevant research meetings, hackathons, workshops, and conferences is also encouraged.

We strive to document our decision-making in text and default to open and transparent communication and record-keeping wherever possible. We currently use a flexible GitHub-based Kanban process to organize and share our work-in-progress. We think in public on the Protocol Labs Research blog and host a lively Research Seminar, Research Saloon, Discord server, and Journal Club, as well as occasional larger research events. We believe intentional development of technology can lead to a better, more empowering world for all of humanity.

#LI-NS1

What's it like to work at Protocol Labs?

Protocol Labs' mission is to improve humanity's most important technology, the Internet. We build protocols, systems, and tools to improve how it works. Today, we are focused on how we store, locate, and move information. Our projects include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, and more.

As a distributed team, we hire anywhere in the world, and at various levels of experience (entry, senior, staff). We look for people with unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds.

We have a great benefits package, including parental leave, contributions to your retirement, competitive pay, and unlimited time off. For U.S.-based employees, we also provide platinum-level health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family.

If you're passionate about the future of computing and a more democratized internet, we want to talk to you.

GDPR for Job Applicants and Candidates

When you apply to a job on this site, the personal data contained in your application will be collected by Protocol Labs, Inc. ("Protocol Labs"), which is located at 427 N Tatnall St #51207, Wilmington, Delaware 19801 and can be contacted by emailing legalrequests[at]protocol.ai. Protocol Labs' data protection team can be contacted via legalrequests[at]protocol.ai. Your personal data will be processed for the purposes of managing Protocol Labs' recruitment related activities, which include setting up and conducting interviews and tests for applicants, evaluating and assessing the results thereto, and as is otherwise needed in the recruitment and hiring processes. Such processing is legally permissible under Art. 6(1)(f) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) as necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by Protocol Labs, which are the solicitation, evaluation, and selection of applicants for employment.

Your personal data will be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States of America and engaged by Protocol Labs to help manage its recruitment and hiring process on Protocol Labs' behalf. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, your personal data will be transferred to the United States once you submit it through this site. Because the European Union Commission has determined that United States data privacy laws do not ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data collected from EU data subjects, the transfer will be subject to appropriate additional safeguards.

Your personal data will be retained by Protocol Labs as long as Protocol Labs determines it is necessary to evaluate your application for employment or to assist in the hiring process. Under the GDPR, you have the right to request access to your personal data, to request that your personal data be rectified or erased, and to request that processing of your personal data be restricted. You also have the right to data portability. In addition, you may lodge a complaint with an EU supervisory authority.

Summary
Company name: Protocol Labs
Remote job title: Startup Systems Engineer, Network Goods
Job tags: Computer Security, Frontend Web Development, infrastructure