Senior Researcher, Systems

About the role

You will architect and implement core algorithms that define how Monad handles storage and recovery across both single-node and distributed topologies. Your work will directly shape the performance and correctness of a live Layer 1 blockchain that processes real-world demand. You will partner with engineers building the execution layer to ensure research prototypes transition seamlessly into production-grade systems. This position requires you to own the full lifecycle of high-stakes systems research, from initial hypothesis through to deployment and optimization. You will investigate deep interactions between concurrency models and low-level hardware to extract maximum throughput from modern silicon. Your findings will be instrumental in determining the architectural direction of a platform used by a global user base. You will communicate your results through code, design documents, and open-source contributions that influence the broader ecosystem.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Designing performant algorithms and architectures related to storage or recovery, in single-node or distributed environments.
• Researching new architectures that challenge the assumptions underlying current database and consensus systems.
• Evaluating emerging techniques to determine their applicability to high-throughput, low-latency blockchain workloads.
• Instrumenting systems with detailed telemetry to understand real-world behavior and identify latent performance bottlenecks.
• Collaborating closely with implementation engineers to translate research insights into robust production software.
• Validating designs through rigorous experimentation, profiling, and analysis against complex, real-world traffic patterns.
• Leveraging advanced toolchains including C++, clang, LLVM, gdb, and perf to dissect intricate system interactions.
• Partnering with the networking and consensus teams to ensure coherence between storage layers and communication protocols.
• Operating comfortably in a fast-paced environment where priorities shift rapidly and problems are ambiguous.
• Contributing to open-source projects that form the foundation of the Monad stack, ensuring transparency and community review.
• Documenting technical discoveries and trade-offs to enable knowledge sharing and long-term maintainability.
• Driving forward the resource management strategies that allow the system to scale efficiently under load.
• Engaging with the community to gather feedback and align research directions with practical deployment constraints.
• Maintaining a strong focus on correctness, ensuring that edge cases are identified and handled before deployment.

Requirements

• Holding a PhD in Computer Science or equivalent.
• Demonstrating significant research experience into databases or operating systems.
• Proven ability writing performant algorithms that scale under demanding conditions.
• A track record of writing production-grade code that operates reliably in live environments.
• Being resourceful and self-motivated, capable of driving projects forward with minimal supervision.
• Excelling in collaborative settings where peer review and constructive feedback are integral to progress.
• Being adaptive; able to make meaningful contributions in a fast-paced environment with evolving goals.
• Exhibiting deep curiosity about lower-level system details and how hardware influences software design.
• Showing a strong interest in building high-value, performant, and distributed systems that serve a global audience.
• Comfort working with tools and workflows common in systems programming, such as version control and code review.
• Willingness to engage with formal methods and testing practices that increase confidence in system correctness.
• Commitment to writing clean, maintainable code that withstands long-term maintenance cycles.

Practical notes

The role is full-time remote. You are expected to work during standard business hours to ensure effective collaboration with the team. There is no mandatory travel or visa requirements for this position at this time.