Lead AI Engineer, Nillion
Secure processing layer for Web3
Open for applications
Secure processing layer for Web3
21-100 employees
Open for applications
21-100 employees
Company mission
To bring to life fast, permissionless, decentralized computation.
Role
Who you are
- We’re looking for a Lead AI Engineer with a strong background in generative AI models and an interest in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET)
- Experience in a technical role which involved developing, fine-tuning and/or deploying AI systems at scale
- Experience leading highly technical teams and/or projects (strong plus if AI-related)
- In-depth understanding of recent transformer architectures / LLMs and their technical implementations
- Familiarity with and/or experience using more traditional ML models such as BERT, CNNs, random forests, etc
- Strong ability to think both technically about specific challenges, research questions, etc. and strategically about high-level direction, roadmap, etc
- Ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to internal/external stakeholders with various backgrounds
- Ability to effectively balance long-term research and short-term pragmatism
- Proficiency in Python and related AI/ML frameworks & technologies (i.e., PyTorch, HuggingFace, Docker, etc)
- MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, or a related field
- In summary, if you are interested in web3 infrastructure, innovation, new technology, and are interested in working with a high-caliber team, please apply
Desirable
- Previous experience at a high-growth startup
- Previous deeptech experience
- Strong entrepreneurial drive
- Experience in or passion for cryptography, multi-party computation (MPC), confidential computing and/or other privacy-preserving technologies
- Excitement about the concept of fully privacy-preserving AI
- Contributions to open-source projects in the AI or privacy tech space
What the job involves
- The ideal candidate will explore the intersection of generative AI and MPC, developing new techniques and methodologies that allow for secure, distributed AI computations
- You will be working with the Nillion Product team and report to Nillion’s AI Product Lead
- You will design & execute a technical AI roadmap towards bridging the gap between AI and confidential computing, in close collaboration with our AI and cryptography team
- You will work closely with our cryptography team, getting up to speed with the technical nuances & implementing AI models accordingly
- You will adapt AI model architectures to work in a performant way under a confidential computing paradigm and technically implement these architectures in our AI toolkit
- You will have regular touchpoints with AI developers on the Nillion network and integrate their feedback in our AI roadmap
- You will work closely with our DevRel team and actively contribute to creating easy-to-use AI tools and suitable AI development workflows
Our take
Blockchain security hasn’t kept pace with the speed of blockchain development, leading to billions of dollars worth of hacks and exploits. Part of the issue is that data isn’t fully decentralised: computations are currently run on a single node, and verified by others, creating privacy vulnerabilities. Nillion has developed a complex solution that builds on an existing strategy: multi-party computation (MPC).
MPC is a cryptographic protocol in which parties can jointly compute outputs without being privy to other parties’ data. This achieves the greater levels of distribution which are expected to help fend off data hacks and breaches - but it’s not foolproof, especially against expert hackers willing to invest extensive time and resources.
Nillion’s solution, what it’s calling Nil Message Compute, adds an extra layer of complication: data is stored across different nodes as unrecognisable, information-theoretic security particles, so it can be computed rapidly but without the need for inter-node messaging. It’s a level of security that’s been described as “crypto analytically unbreakable”, and its implications for the decentralised blockchain space could be huge. It puts Nillion firmly at the sector’s cutting edge, and its early VC funding awarded at the end of 2022 indicates that investors believe so too.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
36% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Oct 2024
$25m
EARLY VC
Dec 2022
$20m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $45m
Company benefits
- Flexible working hours to accommodate lifestyles and a globally distributed team
- Token Compensation; acquire Nll tokens as part of your bonus
- Make a big impact as a early contributor to an incredible founding team
- Work on new problems in an incredible emerging and dynamic field
- Learn from systems engineering, cryptography, and finance domain experts in a mentorship-oriented work culture
- You don’t need to be in an office or at a desk to have an impact anymore! We are fully remote, but value regular meet-ups
Articles
Leadership
Miguel de Vega
(Chief Scientific Officer)Completed a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering at ULB, and spent time as a Siemens IT Consultant before moving into a Project Manager role at Open Canarias. Subsequently co-founded, and led, Browseye, iFlikeU, and Dialective; then served as VP of Data Science at Treexor, and CTO at Sedicii.
Andrew Masanto
(Co-founder)Trained in Law, but went on to found Altitude Shoes, Higher Click, ANONA, and NFT.com. Was also the founding CMO at Hedera Hashgraph and Reserve, and spent time on the Board of Directors for Cornerstone Capital.
Rob Leslie
(President)Founded and still currently leads Sedicii, and previously co-founded Kyckr, as well as spending time on various working groups with the World Economic Forum.
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