Flashbots · 22 hours ago
Distributed Systems Researcher
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior LevelFlashbots is an R&D organization focused on building the future Internet and financial system. They are seeking a researcher to explore open problems in distributed systems and consensus related to Ethereum and MEV, translating academic ideas into practical mechanisms and simulations.
BlockchainCryptocurrencyEthereum
Responsibilities
Read, formalise, and prototype consensus mechanisms relevant to Ethereum L1 and L2
Model incentive structures and attack surfaces under realistic MEV and latency conditions
Collaborate with colleagues working on TEEs, relays, and PBS variants to analyse threat models and improve protocol design
Explore questions such as: How do multiple concurrent proposers (MCP) affect proposer fairness under MEV regimes? What is the role of relays in a geo-decentralised ePBS-Ethereum? Can inclusion lists or geographic decentralisation improve validator diversity? What guarantees can TEEs provide as interactive verifiers in distributed protocols? How do you model distributed private block building?
Work on open-ended research problems that often have no canonical answers
Maintain high autonomy and ownership over your research
Collaborate with engineers, cryptographers, mechanism designers, data scientists
Contribute to both internal research notes and public-facing technical explainers
Operate in a fully remote, asynchronous setup - clear written communication is essential
Participate in company onsites and relevant ecosystem conferences (SBC, ETHCC, FC...)
Qualification
Required
PhD or equivalent experience in distributed systems, cryptography, mathematics, or related areas
Strong foundation in distributed systems, consensus, or network protocols
Ability to formalise and reason about safety, liveness, and incentive compatibility
Familiarity with Ethereum's internals: Proof of Stake's consensus algorithm, proposer-builder separation, Consensus Layer (CL) clients, gossip protocol
Experience writing or reading academic-grade research reports and small prototypes (Python, Rust, Go)
Clarity in technical writing: you can distill dense ideas into precise, legible outputs that will be consumed internally or externally
Curiosity and independence: you often find yourself nerdsniped by deep technical puzzles
Preferred
Experience with Trusted Execution Environments (Intel TDX, AMD SEV) and remote attestation
Background in cryptographic or privacy-preserving systems (MPC, FHE, ZK)
Experience with MEV, relays, or PBS architectures
Deep understanding of other large-scale distributed systems (IPFS, ...)
Contributions to ethresear.ch, EIPs, open-source distributed systems projects for an empirical-leaning profile, or publications at FC, SBC, or similar for an academic-leaning profile
Benefits
Significantly above market rate equity compensation package
Unlimited PTO with a high level of freedom and autonomy for your work
Attractive health coverage package for US employees
$3000 Yearly budget for your individual learning and development goals
Paid travel - 2 x team on-site in different parts of the world per year plus periodic travel to events
Company
Flashbots
Flashbots is a research and development company that focuses on miners and searchers for transparent and efficient MEV extraction.
Founded in 2020
11-50 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Flashbots 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
2025 (2)
2024 (1)
2022 (2)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$60MKey Investors
Paradigm
2023-07-21Series B· $60M
2021-01-01Seed
2020-01-01Seed
Recent News
TheRecursive.com
2026-01-25
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