Job Description

The MIT Digital Currency Initiative is looking for a software engineer (remote-friendly) to help build the future of money. Our existing financial system is slow, expensive, and deeply unfair. We need a new financial system that serves everyone instead of just wealthy institutions, and digital cash could be its base layer. This new role will work with research scientists and developers at the DCI to design and implement open source software for a retail central bank digital currency, collaborating closely with a team at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.  Working at MIT, this is a chance to help build the money of the future. We're looking for a software engineer who can work with students, developers, and researchers to bring cash into the internet era.

We welcome U.S.-based remote or Cambridge/Boston-based remote applicants. Our team is currently 100% remote, and during non-pandemic times, closer to 50%. Our office is in the Media Lab on MIT’s campus in Cambridge, MA. We can provide pay that is competitive for university developer and research roles. This is a one-year, 50% to full-time (negotiable) benefits-eligible position. The position is not eligible for visa sponsor visas.  We anticipate a start date in early 2021.

Background 

MIT Digital Currency Initiative is comprised of researchers and developers building cryptocurrency and blockchain technology software. Our mission is to empower people by making it as easy to move value as it is to move information.  We have been one of the leading institutions building Bitcoin software since our founding in 2015, and we have been thinking about central bank digital currency since 2016. We contribute to and participate in the open source cryptocurrency community via talks, software, code review, and published papers. All our work is open-source.

This is position is for one year with the possibility of extension. 

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with senior research scientist/engineers on designing components of the digital cash transaction system, including defining select system requirements; 
• Implement and debug components of the digital cash transaction system;
• Develop benchmarking code, assess system technical performance, and identify optimization opportunities;
• Document design decisions, including alternative choices and the trade-offs among them;
• Attend weekly planning and technical meetings, which may include presenting on code, performance benchmarks, or design choices;
• Operate effectively in an independent environment where requirements are not necessarily well-specified;
• Contribute to creating an inclusive environment where people of all races, genders, ages, and other backgrounds are empowered to do their best work and receive recognition for it.

Supervision Received:

Reports to Director, Digital Currency Initiative

Supervision Exercised:

None

Qualifications

REQUIRED:

•  At least five years of systems or security programming experience (preferably C/C++, Go, or Rust);
• Passion for designing the next iteration of digital money;
• Interest in collaborating with students and researchers;
• A strong desire to contribute to open-source software projects;
• Ability and interest in communicating with non-technical stakeholders;
• Desire to work independently and drive process, like creating a plan to distill requirements in order to implement and evaluate systems with different trade-offs;
• Willingness to help create an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds.

To apply, go to https://hr.mit.edu/careers and search for job ID#19284.

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