Working for the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) means being part of a prestigious school that consistently ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. As a public university dedicated to improving the world around us, we have three missions: training, research and technology transfer. We boast one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and employ more than 6,000 people. Our employees perform high-value-added work in teaching and research and in the school’s administrative and technical services. Between our main campus in Lausanne and our satellite campuses in Geneva, Neuchâtel, Fribourg and Sion, our workforce is composed of more than one hundred different professions.

At EPFL, we foster a culture of respect and inclusion in the workplace. We promote a healthy work-life balance through flexible working hours and on-campus daycare and sports facilities. Our employees also benefit from belonging to a diverse community of 16,000 people – including over 10,000 students and 3,500 researchers – from 120 different countries.

Post-Doctoral Researcher in Distributed and Decentralized Systems (W/M) - 100%

Your mission :

A position is available for a talented and passionate Post-Doctoral Researcher in theDecentralized and Distributed Systems (DEDIS) lab atEPFL led byProf. Bryan Ford inLausanne, Switzerland. The DEDIS lab focuses on building secure, scalable, and privacy-preserving decentralized systems, with a strong emphasis on building and deploying fully functional and usable systems. DEDIS is currently developing next-generation blockchain or distributed ledger technology, already available as an open-source prototype and in use by industry partners and within EPFL’s campus-wide infrastructure. DEDIS is the only academic research lab globally to have both built a next-generation blockchain system from the ground up and regularly published its design elements in top-tier peer-reviewed security/privacy conferences such as IEEE S&P ‘16, ‘17, ‘18 and USENIX Security ‘16, ‘17.
Main duties and responsibilities include :

The Post-Doctoral Researcher will work closely with Prof. Ford, PhD and undergraduate students, senior researchers, and software engineers within the DEDIS lab, along with multiple external research and development partners from industry and academia. Some participation in teaching activities is also expected. Research activities will include notably the design, implementation, and experimental validation of state-of-the-art decentralized systems, including playing a core role in the ongoing design and development of DEDIS’s next-generation blockchain architecture and software infrastructure.



The Post-Doctoral Researcher will be expected not only to lead state-of-the-art research projects but also to work closely with the DEDIS lab’s software engineering team and external industry partners to design, implement, document, and deploy highly usable, open-source, security- and privacy-enhancing tools and infrastructure. Specific topics the Post-Doctoral Researcher is likely to work on includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Next generation blockchain and distributed ledger technologies with applications to cryptocurrencies, secure business processes, e-governance, and beyond.


• Large-scale, low-latency anonymous messaging and blogging.


• Tracking-resistant WiFi and peer-to-peer ad-hoc networking.


• User-friendly, privacy- and security-hardened operating systems.


• Systematic defenses against side-channel and fingerprinting attacks.

Your profile :

Required skills and expertise areas:

• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English (French is not required)


• Strong background in security, privacy, and applied cryptography (ciphers, elliptic curves, homomorphic encryption, multi-party computation, zero-knowledge proofs)


• Distributed systems programming and algorithms (replication/consistency, Paxos/BFT, DHTs, peer-to-peer protocols, gossip, swarming, etc.).


• Strong analytical skills, a desire to challenge themselves, self-evaluate and refine tools and skill sets regularly.

Desirable skills and expertise areas:

• Background in databases, statistics, networking, electronic health records, genomics, game theory, microeconomics, and/or machine learning.


• Systems programming languages such as C, C++, Go, and/or Rust.


• Network protocols and programming (Ethernet, IP, TCP, UDP, SSL/TLS).


• Mobile programming in Android and/or iOS.


• Team-based code and project management using revision control (e.g., Git), open-source workflows (e.g., GitHub), unit tests, and continuous integration.

A PhD degree in computer science, electrical engineering, communication systems, computer engineering, or a similar area, with a strong publication track record in information security and privacy.




We offer :

• A technology-focused academic institution consistently close to the top of the international rankings with top-tier faculty and students from around the world.


• A research topic of critical importance and global prominence in security and privacy, the funding of which is already secured for multiple years.


• Integration in a young, dynamic, and international team.


• Tight collaboration with the LCA1 Lab, the SPRING Lab, the Swiss Data Science Center, the Center for Digital Trust and with strategic external partners.


• A dynamic, modern, engineering-focused working environment.


• A career boost significantly increasing chances to obtain a faculty position.

Start date :

To be agreed upon, but the earlier the better.
Term of employment :

Fixed-term (CDD)
Work rate :

100%
Duration :

Fixed-term (CDD), renewable.

Flexible, with an upper bound of four years.

Contact :



Application Submission



If you are interested in this position and believe that you qualify, please prepare the following documents:

• Cover letter


• Curriculum vitae


• 2-pages research statement (including, notably, how you would contribute to our activities)


• Résumé with a list of publications (please highlight the two most relevant ones)


• Names, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers of at least three references, mentioning for each of them the professional relationship you have with them

Send all five documents to dedis@epfl.ch with “Application: Post-Doctoral Researcher DEDIS Laboratory” in the subject line (PDF attachments only).
Applications should be submitted by August 31st, 2018, but the positions will remain open until filled. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted individually for interviews.