Postdoctoral Fellow in Cryptography

Full time (35 hours per week)

Available for 21 months

We are looking for a Postdoctoral researcher position in cryptography and open finance

The Opportunity:

The successful candidate will contribute to the formal security specification and design of cryptographic protocols in the Open Finance area. In Open Finance we envision multiple entities, each holding private data, that want to perform joint computation over this data to offer to customers the best possible financial products. The main goal of the project is to investigate what are the security requirements for Open Finance, and then provide a formal security specification (e.g., in the Universal Composable framework) of such a system. The successful candidate will then work on designing a protocol that matches this security definition, and in the final stage of the project, will implement part of the system, focusing on a specific use case. The candidate will be supported by members of the Business School to successfully complete the first phase of the project related to understanding the basic security requirements of an Open Finance system. The majority of the project will be related to the formal design of the system that will be supported by members of the School of Informatics. The project is funded by Input-Output Global. 

Candidates must have a Ph.D. (or nearing completion) in cryptography or related fields. Evidence of strong research experience as demonstrated through publications at top-tier conferences or high-impact journals is essential. We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with strong initiative and commitment to excellence, and an ability to conduct world-class research.

Knowledge, skills and experience:

• Ph.D. (or near completion) in cryptography or related fields
• Track record of strong publications
• Strong experience in provable security, and in the design of cryptographic protocols

The following criteria are not yes/no factors, but questions of degree.  Recruitment will aim at selecting those candidates with the best possible performance in all these criteria.

• Strong experience in research in one or more of the following areas: secure multi-party computation, zero-knowledge proofs, blockchain, functional encryption, fully-homomorphic encryption, and distributed algorithms.
• Experience in implementing cryptographic algorithms, and writing software for security-related applications
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly, orally, and in writing