Research Scientist – Cryptography

Riverside Overview

Riverside Research is an independent National Security Nonprofit dedicated to research and development in the national interest. We provide high-end technical services, research and development, and prototype solutions to some of the country’s most challenging technical problems. All Riverside Research opportunities require U.S. Citizenship

Within Riverside Research, the Open Innovation Center (OIC) conducts internally funded and contract-funded R&D to develop technologies with lasting practical impact. The Secure and Resilient Systems (SRS) group within OIC focuses on rigorous approaches to building trustworthy computing systems.

SRS seeks a Research Scientist – Cryptography with an interest in formal methods to develop, prototype, and evaluate new formal methods techniques for software and systems security. The researcher will contribute to a range of collaborative R&D projects, working with colleagues across formal methods, cryptography, programming languages, and systems software.

If you are a cryptographer interested in programming language theory or formal methods as well as compilers, computer architecture, or operating systems, you should apply for this position. If you have mechanized cryptographic arguments in a theorem prover such as Rocq or Lean, or a verification tool such as Crypto Verif or Easy Crypt, you definitely should apply for this position.

If you want to advance the state of the art in compositional, mechanized proofs of cryptographic protocol implementations, then you need to apply for this position!

• Conduct formal methods and cryptography research, including developing models, specifications, proofs, and verification techniques.
• Develop and evaluate research prototypes and tools that apply formal methods to software and systems security problems.
• Collaborate on multidisciplinary research with colleagues in formal methods, cryptography, programming languages, systems software, and related areas.
• Communicate research results through publications, reports, presentations, and briefings to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Support research planning and proposal development by identifying new opportunities and contributing technical approaches.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, cybersecurity, or a related field; 5+ years of relevant research or engineering experience. Advanced degree preferred. Equivalent combinations of education and experience will be considered.
• Research experience in cryptography and a strong interest in formal methods, programming languages, or a closely related area.
• Experience developing or applying mechanized proofs or formal verification techniques.
• Demonstrated knowledge of cryptography, including techniques for reasoning about cryptographic security.
• Ability to formulate technical problems, evaluate alternative approaches, and conduct research independently and collaboratively.
• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly in writing and in presentations, and to collaborate effectively with researchers from different disciplines.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.

• Experience with proof assistants or verification systems such as Rocq, Lean, Isabelle/HOL, Easy Crypt, F*, or similar tools.
• Experience with formal reasoning techniques such as game-hopping, universal composability, logical relations, translation validation, refinement, or separation logic.
• Experience formally verifying cryptographic implementations or protocols, compilers, operating systems, hypervisors, or other security-critical software.
• Familiarity with computer architecture, including topics such as tagged architectures, hardware/software interfaces, or ISA-level reasoning.
• Experience developing new formal methods tools or extending existing verification frameworks.
• A publication record or other demonstrated contributions to research in formal methods, security, cryptography, or programming languages.

This represents the typical compensation range for this position based on experience, location and other…