Category Labs · 2 months ago
Senior Researcher, Mechanism Design
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level
$250K/yr - $250K/yrCategory Labs is a team of systems engineers and researchers focused on advancing decentralized technology. The Senior Researcher will design mechanisms for economic security and decentralization in permissionless blockchains, collaborating closely with the engineering team and evaluating existing blockchain systems.
BlockchainEthereumSmart Contracts
Responsibilities
You’ll design and evaluate mechanisms that optimize for economic security, decentralization, performance, compatibility with existing infrastructure, and ease of use. A few example areas include transaction ordering (PGA vs flashbots/PBS); staking; liquid staking; spam prevention; on-chain randomness; light clients
You’ll evaluate potential attack vectors and evaluate ways to mitigate the threat of attacks
You’ll advise the team on technical merits of other systems that are potential partners, such as bridges and DeFi protocols
You’ll stay up to date on mechanism design in other blockchains and develop opinions on various practices
You’ll collaborate with our engineering team to design and test new mechanism options
You’ll write about your findings for both internal and public audiences
Qualification
Required
Excellent knowledge of mechanisms and policies in existing blockchains, with strong opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of existing mechanisms. Example areas we'd expect you to have good knowledge of: Transaction ordering/MEV (both mechanically how MEV “works” in Ethereum, including architectural changes post-Merge, and its consequences, e.g. to decentralization); Staking and economic security (delegation economics; slashing conditions; stake pools); Consensus mechanisms (pBFT, tendermint, Gasper); Spam prevention; Trustlessness and decentralization (light clients; merkle proofs; security guarantees of various L1s and rollups)
Excellent knowledge of major DeFi primitives (AMMs, bridges, oracles, etc)
Excellent technical communication skills
Extreme technical curiosity
Attention to detail
Creativity
Resourcefulness and independence
Clarity of thought
Enthusiasm about learning and teaching
Enthusiasm for Monad's mission of enabling far more decentralized computation
Preferred
Previous experience at a L1 or L2 blockchain protocol
Experience with applied cryptography
Experience with distributed systems
Experience with game theory
Ability to code, e.g. for implementing simulations
Benefits
World class benefits package (medical/dental/vision)
Unlimited paid time off
401(k) retirement plan + company match
Lunch and dinner stipend (in-office NYC)
Monthly wellness benefit
Paid parental leave
Company
Category Labs
Category Labs (formerly known as Monad Labs) is a team of systems engineers and researchers on a mission to design and build at the frontier of decentralized technology.
Founded in 2022
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Category Labs has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2023 (3)
2021 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$244MKey Investors
OKX VenturesParadigmDragonfly
2024-05-15Series Unknown
2024-04-09Series A· $225M
2023-02-14Seed· $19M
Leadership Team
James Hunsaker
Co-Founder
Recent News
2025-12-24
Crowdfund Insider
2025-12-24
2025-12-08
Company data provided by crunchbase