Staff Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA, United States

Empower the Individual Through Crypto

Gemini is a crypto exchange and custodian that allows customers to buy, sell, store, and earn more than 30 cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, litecoin, and Zcash. Gemini is a New York trust company that is subject to the capital reserve requirements, cybersecurity requirements, and banking compliance standards set forth by the New York State Department of Financial Services and the New York Banking Law. Gemini was founded in 2014 by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to empower the individual through crypto.

Crypto is about giving you greater choice, independence, and opportunity. We are here to help you on your journey. We build crypto products that are simple, elegant, and secure. Whether you are an individual or an institution, we want to help you buy, sell, and store your bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Crypto is not just a technology, it's a movement.

At Gemini, our mission is to empower the individual and that includes giving our employees flexibility of choice — our Office Optional Policy allows employees to choose to work from one of our physical locations or from home.

The Department:  Crypto Core

The Role: Staff Software Engineer, Applied Cryptography

Security of customers’ digital assets and personal information held with Gemini is our first and foremost priority. Gemini’s Signing team develops and maintains software for the purpose of working with Gemini customers’ digital assets. To directly support our cryptographic software, hardware, and trusted execution environments, this work includes developing and managing cryptographic security tools and libraries and building new tools to help customers securely interact with various blockchains.

In our work, we research and develop approaches in our signing environment. Among other projects, this may include implementing secure multi-party computation, partial homomorphic schemes, and applying zero knowledge proofs. We do this all while using hardware to protect our keys in trusted platform modules (TPMs), hardware security modules (HSMs), and trusted execution environments (TEEs). An ideal candidate would have experience in the implementation of cryptographic software that was used with one or more of these hardware areas (e.g., signing, encrypting, load-time attestation, digital signatures, sealing, binding). This engineer will also work closely with various teams including our Security Operations, Custody, Product Security, Wallet Engineering, and Platform Engineering teams.

We are a dynamic group with both entrepreneurial spirit and security engineering experience. We have incredibly high aspirations, and we are looking for like-minded individuals who want to guide the transition to a new more decentralized world where access to digital assets is normalized and ubiquitous.

Responsibilities:

Maintain and build the software that is the foundation for our MPC work

Implement software applications that may include key storage, signing, encryption, code attestation, or secure boot

Design, deploy, and maintain security solutions supporting maintenance of digital assets

Work closely with software security engineers to develop the capabilities of the existing signing security infrastructure with a goal of security and scalability

Develop tools that integrate security into systems and process

Participate in disaster recovery (DR) scenarios to validate operability of physical and digital material

Work with hardware security mechanisms of interest including a trusted platform module (TPM) and/or hardware security modules (HSMs), and/or other similar hardware key storage mechanisms

Minimum Qualifications:

Software development experience in at least one of homomorphic encryption, secure multiparty computation, security protocols, PAKE protocols, zero knowledge proofs, or pallier encryption

Strong understanding of encryption and key management

Experience in systems architecture, computer architecture, trustworthy computing, or cryptographic protocols

Experience in system algorithms with performance understanding and optimizations (hardware and software)

Experience Integrating or deploying in production environments

Familiarity with a modern programming language (e.g., Rust, Python, C++, Scala) and a shell environment

Experience in researching and addressing complex business topics around TPMs, HSMs, TEEs, secure build infrastructure, and applied cryptography. Candidates without a strong understanding in one of these areas may still be a strong candidate if this is offset by a strong background in a systems security area (e.g., operating systems, embedded systems security, firmware security, network security engineering)

Strong understanding of systems/network security, secure protocol design, secure build and supply chain management, encryption, authentication, key management and applied cryptography

Demonstrated ability to convert theoretical security concepts into production

Proficiency in a common scripting language including but not limited to Python, Ruby, etc.

Able to troubleshoot and debug issues, and demonstrate a methodical approach to root cause analysis

Experience working with engineering teams, teaching, training, and mentoring on how to implement best-practice technical solutions

Strong written and verbal communication skills; attentive to details

Preferred Qualifications:

4+ years experience in software development with a focus in applied cryptography

2+ years experience in reading/writing code in Rust, Python, Linux, Scala, C/C++

2+ years experience with secure software that makes use of a trusted platform module (TPM), hardware security module (HSM), trusted execution environment (TEE), smartcard, and/or other similar hardware key storage mechanism

Solid understanding of product management and product ownership, software development practices (e.g., SDLC), and methodologies

Knowledge of hardware security, verified/secure boot, tamper resistance, side-channel attacks, anti-cloning, and PUFs

Having prior knowledge in the blockchain space is not a requirement but good to have

It Pays to Work Here

The compensation & benefits package for this role includes:

Competitive starting salary

A discretionary annual bonus

Long-term incentive in the form of a new hire equity grant

Comprehensive health plans

401K with company matching

Annual Learning & Development stipend

Paid Parental Leave

Flexible time off

Salary Range : The base salary range for this role is between $172,000 - $241,000 in New York City, the State of California and the State of Washington. This range is not inclusive of our discretionary bonus or equity package. When determining a candidate’s compensation, we consider a number of factors including skillset, experience, job scope, and current market data.

At Gemini, we strive to build diverse teams that reflect the people we want to empower through our products, and we are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. Equal Opportunity is the Law, and Gemini is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. If you have a specific need that requires accommodation, please let a member of the People Team know.