Open positions
Open Quantum Safe, Cryptographic Research Architect position
(posted June 18, 2025)
The Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo invites applications from qualified candidates for a 2-year position as a Cryptographic Research Architect on the Open Quantum Safe project.
This position is available immediately in Professor Stebila’s research group. You will be working with a world-wide team of researchers and developers from academia and industry on the Open Quantum Safe project. You will have the opportunity to push the boundaries of applied post-quantum cryptography and contribute to various open-source projects. You will help integrate new post-quantum cryptographic algorithms into the liboqs open-source library, and design and implement techniques for evaluating and benchmarking these cryptographic algorithms in a variety of contexts. The field of post-quantum cryptography is rapidly evolving, and you will need to track ongoing changes to algorithms due to peer review and advances by researchers via the the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography project forum. In addition to algorithm research, tasks cover all aspects of the software development lifecycle and include design, programming cryptographic algorithms, integrating other cryptographic implementations into the liboqs framework, integrating liboqs into 3rd party open-source projects, testing, benchmarking and documentation.
The Open Quantum Safe project is part of the Linux Foundation’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance. You may be asked to take an ownership role in coordinating the development of various sub-components of the Open Quantum Safe project and participate in PQCA activities.
Qualifications:
- Undergraduate or Graduate degree in Mathematics, Computer Science or Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Essential: C programming experience, at least 3 years.
- Essential: Familiarity with cryptographic algorithms including public key and symmetric key cryptography, digital signatures, message digest, and hashing algorithms
- Essential: Familiarity with version control systems (Git & Github workflow)
- Familiarity with cryptographic protocols such as TLS and SSH
- Familiarity with code analysis tools like Coverity and valgrind
- Familiarity with one or more of: Python, Java, Go, Rust, C++
- Familiarity with software build systems (CMake)
- Familiarity with continuous integration systems (Github Actrions)
The appointment will be a full-time position for 2 years. The salary range is CAD$80,000–$115,000/year and commensurate with experience.
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Office of Indigenous Relations.
The University values the diverse and intersectional identities of its students, faculty, and staff. The University regards equity and diversity as an integral part of academic excellence and is committed to accessibility for all employees. The University of Waterloo seeks applicants who embrace our values of equity, anti-racism and inclusion. As such, we encourage applications from candidates who have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized, including applicants who identify as Indigenous peoples (e.g., First Nations, Métis, Inuit/Inuk), Black, racialized, people with disabilities, women and/or 2SLGBTQ+.
The University of Waterloo is committed to accessibility for persons with disabilities. If you have any application, interview or workplace accommodation requests, please contact Carol Seely-Morrison.
If you have any questions regarding the position, the application process, assessment process, or eligibility, please contact Douglas Stebila.
Canadians, Canadian Permanent Residents, and those who are legally entitled to work in Canada will be given priority consideration for this position.
Please submit your CV to dstebila@uwaterloo.ca.