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Principal Applied Scientist – Zero‑Trust Consensus & Secure MQTT

corpora-jobs-1778796293285-db9d41c6 - Frontier Development
Applied ScientistPrincipal1 position
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Why This Role is Different

Frontier Development Role

You will architect and deliver the world’s first zero‑trust consensus protocol that runs on commodity MQTT brokers, marrying cryptographic attestation with graph‑aware trust weighting. Your work will enable multi‑agent systems to reach agreement even when a fraction of the network is actively compromised.

The Frontier Element

This role pioneers the fusion of formal cryptographic guarantees with adaptive graph‑aware consensus, a combination that has never been realized at scale in edge‑deployed MAS.

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Project Context

Research Area

Secure Graph‑Aware Consensus (SGC) with Zero‑Trust Signed MQTT

From: Communication Graph Vulnerability to Malicious Agents

Why This Role is Critical

The SGC layer is the linchpin that turns a conventional consensus protocol into a tamper‑resistant, trust‑weighted system. Building it requires deep expertise in cryptographic protocol design, distributed consensus, and IoT edge security.

What You Will Build

A production‑grade, zero‑trust consensus engine that runs atop signed MQTT, complete with trust propagation, integrity scoring, and formal resilience proofs.

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Key Responsibilities

  • Design and formally verify a trust‑weighted consensus protocol that integrates with signed MQTT payloads.
  • Implement zero‑trust identity verification using ECC‑based DTLS/TLS and per‑device short‑lived certificates.
  • Develop a MoleTrust‑style depth‑limited trust propagation engine that feeds into the consensus weighting.
  • Prototype the protocol on a fleet of heterogeneous edge devices and benchmark resilience under simulated Byzantine attacks.
  • Document security proofs and produce a whitepaper for the open‑source community.
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Required Skills & Experience

Technical Must-Haves

Cryptographic protocol design (ECC, TLS/DTLS, JWT)

Expert
Designing and implementing secure, signed MQTT communication for edge devices.

Distributed consensus algorithms (W‑MSR, Byzantine fault tolerance)

Expert
Extending consensus to incorporate trust scores and resilience metrics.

Graph theory and trust propagation algorithms

Expert
Building depth‑limited trust propagation for graph‑aware weighting.

Formal verification (model checking, theorem proving)

Expert
Providing provable guarantees of resilience under adversarial conditions.

Embedded IoT security (secure boot, TPM, secure elements)

Expert
Ensuring end‑to‑end security of edge devices participating in consensus.

Experience Requirements

  • 10+ years designing secure distributed systems for industrial IoT or edge deployments.
  • Track record of publishing or patenting secure consensus protocols or zero‑trust architectures.
  • Hands‑on experience with MQTT broker customization and signed payload handling.

Education

PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field with a focus on distributed systems security or cryptography.

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Preferred Skills

  • Experience with DTLS‑based MQTT brokers in large‑scale deployments.
  • Knowledge of zero‑trust identity frameworks (e.g., OIDC, OAuth2) in IoT.
  • Familiarity with formal verification tools such as TLA+, Coq, or Isabelle.
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You Will Thrive Here If...

  • Thrives in environments where the boundary between research and production is blurred.
  • Comfortable taking ownership of end‑to‑end security from design to deployment.
  • Shows a bias toward rapid iteration and shipping prototypes.
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Impact & Growth

12-Month Impact

Within 12 months, deliver a fully tested, zero‑trust consensus engine that can be deployed on 1,000+ edge nodes, reducing the risk of Byzantine consensus drift by >95% under realistic attack scenarios.

Growth Opportunity

Lead a cross‑functional team that expands the zero‑trust consensus platform into multi‑tenant cloud edge services, driving a new revenue stream.

Ready to Push the Boundaries?

If this sounds like the challenge you have been looking for, we want to hear from you. We value what you can build over where you have been.