Before you read the details of this role, there’s something you should know. At Matter Labs, we don’t see ourselves as a company, but as a highly aligned global team on a single mission: to accelerate the mass adoption of crypto for personal sovereignty.

Our core technology – zkSync Era – is a layer 2 rollup that uses advanced cryptography called zero-knowledge proofs to scale Ethereum without compromising on security or decentralization. zkSync Era is EVM compatible, which means projects on Ethereum and other EVM-based blockchains can easily deploy on zkSync Era to take advantage of low gas fees and high transaction speeds.

With a total of $458 million in mission-driven funding, zkSync Era is the first EVM-compatible ZK Rollup to go live on testnet (February 2022) and be deployed on mainnet (October 2022). As we enter the endgame for Ethereum scaling, we are committed to full open source and building in public toward our stated mission [so that even if we fail, the community and the ecosystem will benefit from our contribution].

Read more about working at Matter Labs here.

PhD interns play a vital role in research organisations, and this significance holds particularly true in the field of blockchains, which encompasses various disciplines. At MatterLabs, our work spans a wide range of areas, including applied machine learning, applied cryptography, and numerous systems domains such as consensus, verification, compilers, and networking, among others. We are actively seeking PhD students specialising in these fields, who are enthusiastic about the prospect of their ideas finding a welcoming environment within a rapidly expanding layer-2 blockchain ecosystem.

As part of your role, you will engage in conducting experiments, collaborating with academics and engineers, generating innovative ideas, and determining ways to enhance the current state of the field. This involves keeping up with the latest research published in papers and staying informed about the advancements made by dynamic startups operating in our domain. Typically, we appreciate the emergence of research papers resulting from internships at the PhD level.

We are seeking individuals who possess pertinent expertise, as evident from their recent research outcomes like papers, and who are also enthusiastic about tackling challenges head-on until a solution is found. We are interested in individuals who strike a balance between academic excellence and a practical mindset.

At Matter Labs, you have the freedom to work how you want, when you want, and from where you want. We operate in small, focused teams, with no time tracking and minimum bureaucracy. Only results matter. We will provide you with anything you need to learn, grow, and be productive.

Our results-only environment means anyone who believes in our mission can join us, regardless of background, sexual orientation, race, gender, and age. Both our team and community are made up of people from different countries, cultures, ethnical and religious backgrounds. That's why, out of politeness and respect, we refrain from opinions on politics, religion, or sex at the workplace.

We designed our culture of freedom and ownership to persist as we scale and to establish the base for a positive-sum community as we move toward full decentralization.

Apply now if this role sounds of interest and we aim to get back to you as soon as possible.