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Software Is Eating the World

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Mem Protocol

a16z portfolio company

Applied Cryptographer

Location
San Francisco, California
Work arrangement
On-site

About the role

Posted Mar 27, 2026

## About Us

We build the portable identity and permissions layer for people and the agents acting on their behalf.

In a world where software is starting to act the biggest constraint is trust: knowing who can do what, on whose behalf, in which system, with a clear record of every action.

Today, that trust is broken across siloed apps, scattered accounts, and incomplete audit trails. We fix that by making identity, permissions, and accountability portable across organizations and systems.

## Mindset

### You think about how cryptographic primitives can be used to secure identity, access, communication, and storage of data. Have opinions on how trust, authorization, and credential systems should evolve with newer advances in computing and algorithms. Understand the principles that go into designing robust and adaptive cryptographic systems. Are able to identify potential flaws in a given cryptographic scheme, protocol, or implementation.

## What you'll do

### You will work on the cryptographic foundations that let people, agents, and systems establish identity, delegate authority, and protect sensitive data. The job is to turn messy security requirements into mechanisms that are precise, durable, and usable in practice. You might design identity and access systems, build credentialing and key management infrastructure, develop secure and privacy-preserving protocols, or evaluate existing systems against realistic attack models. The aim is not just elegant cryptography, but systems that remain trustworthy under real-world use.

## Preferred Background

- Designed and implemented identity and access management systems that use cryptographic techniques to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive data.
- Developed cryptographic protocols to enable secure communication between distributed systems and trusted services.
- Designed and implemented privacy-enhancing technologies to enable secure transactions and communication while preserving users' privacy.
- Built secure key management systems, credentialing infrastructure, and other tools to enable users to manage cryptographic material securely.
- Analyzed and evaluated the security of existing distributed systems and identifying potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses that need to be addressed.
- Researched and developed new cryptographic techniques to address emerging security challenges in modern software systems.

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At a glance

Location
San Francisco, California
Workplace
On-site
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The company

Mem Protocol

Mem Protocol

Mem Protocol is a human-centric tool for the social layer of web3.

Crypto
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