Applied Cryptographer

Mercor is hiring an Applied Cryptographer on behalf of a leading AI lab. In this role, you’ll design, implement, and review cryptographic primitives and protocols. You’ll identify and mitigate risks like side channels, entropy issues, and misuse of libraries while guiding secure key and certificate management practices. This position is ideal for candidates with a deep understanding of applied cryptography and experience bringing security into production-grade systems.

You’re a great fit if you:

• Have a background in computer science, mathematics, or information security.

• Are proficient in Python and C or Rust, with hands-on experience in secure systems programming.

• Have strong knowledge of cryptographic primitives and protocols (AES, RSA, ECDH, TLS).

• Are experienced with OpenSSL/LibreSSL, libsodium, and PKI infrastructure.

• Understand HSMs, secure key storage, and certificate lifecycle management.

• Can identify and mitigate side-channel vulnerabilities and entropy problems.

• Care deeply about ensuring cryptographic systems are usable, reliable, and secure in practice.

Primary Goal of This Role

To specify, implement, and review cryptographic protocols and primitives, ensuring secure usage and guiding robust key and certificate management across AI-driven systems.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement cryptographic primitives and secure protocols.

• Review code paths for cryptographic misuse, side channels, and entropy flaws.

• Guide secure key management, PKI, and certificate handling practices.

• Integrate cryptography into production AI systems with performance and robustness in mind.

• Work with engineers to ensure end-to-end encryption and secure communications.

• Document cryptographic workflows and establish best practices for the team.

Why This Role Is Exciting

• You’ll shape the security foundations of cutting-edge AI systems.

• You’ll apply cryptography not just in theory, but in real-world, high-impact applications.

• You’ll operate at the intersection of applied cryptography, systems engineering, and AI security.

• You’ll safeguard data privacy, integrity, and trustworthiness across mission-critical systems.

Pay & Work Structure

• Weekly Bonus of $500–$1000 USD per 5 tasks.

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

Contract and Payment Terms

• You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
• Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.

About Mercor

Mercor partners with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier models using human expertise. You will work on projects that focus on training and enhancing AI systems. You will be paid competitively, collaborate with leading researchers, and help shape the next generation of AI systems in your area of expertise.