Director of R&D, Starfleet

About Protocol Labs
Protocol Labs drives breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. Protocol Labs is a product-development lab, but behind the protocols and tools we build, behind the research and implementations, are passionate people, teammates, and community members. Most teams in the Protocol Labs Network are fully distributed and work remotely around the world. Engineers, researchers, and operators work in the open to improve the internet — humanity's most important technology — as we explore new advances at the intersection of many exciting fields (web3, cryptography, networks, distributed systems) and cultures (startups, research, open-source, distributed work).
Director for Research Development, Starfleet @ PLN
We seek a talented human with a passion leading groundbreaking research projects and guiding teams into delivering quantifiable results in a structured process, interfacing with stakeholders and consumers of the tech produced.
Key Summary
We are hiring a Director to drive Research & Development at Protocol Labs. We're looking for an individual who thoroughly understands the principles of fast research, distributed systems and product development.
As a Director, you will work with an experienced interdisciplinary team to design and build resilient systems for tomorrow’s web. You will collaborate closely with lab leads to drive key aspects of roadmap definition, coordination, execution and delivery. You must be responsive, flexible and able to succeed within a fast-paced environment. 
What is Research Development at Protocol Labs
At the Research Development group, we translate theory into reality. We pick the most challenging problems that are needed to be solve to cross the chasms of planetary scale adoption of decentralized technologies and we take them heads on with a pragmatic and rigorous approach, measuring our progress at every step of the way and interfacing with the integrations teams at Web3 and not only to get the technology in the hands of people.
This direction creates an incredibly rich and fertile ground for ideation and prototyping to happen, with a launch pad for shipping those new ideas into reality, testing them in real world scenarios and creating maximum impact for the research performed.
As the Director for Research Development at Protocol labs, you will… 

 
Synthesize and align a cohesive strategy for how each Research Development Lab can maximally contribute to Network impact
 
Interface with the Research Development Lab Leads and drive effective decision making that gets translated into a consistent Roadmap
 
Interact with a multitude of Web3 and Research projects and other key stakeholders to find opportunities for collaboration and new teams to join the Research Development front
 
Drive cross-team decision-making on technical decisions and ensure that appropriate resources are employed to deliver high quality results
 
Identify, assess, track and mitigate issues and risks at multiple levels
 
Create, maintain and disseminate project information to stakeholders
 
Lead cross functional project meetings, communication, and decision making
 
Lead milestone reviews & present project status to the executive team

You may be a fit for this role if you have…

 
Comfort discussing strategic trade offs with engineers, understand the technology and develop a good intuition to aid on the decision making process
 
Experience in gathering requirements, developing specifications, and driving execution
 
Product & Project Management experience.
 
Experience managing hardware/software product releases
 
Ability to drive effective teamwork, communication, collaboration and commitment across multiple disparate groups
 
Experience with leading 3rd party teams, engineering teams and business stakeholders

Bonus Points: 

 
Experience working in Open Source projects
 
Experience working in Volunteer led organizations
 
Demonstrated ability to manage project/task prioritization, project planning and schedule development
 
Proven success of influencing and developing productive working relationships with diverse technical teams and stakeholders
 
Strong technical and problem solving skills
 
Excellent written and verbal communication skills

What’s it like to work at Protocol Labs?
 
Protocol Labs' mission is to improve humanity’s most important technology, the Internet. We build protocols, systems, and tools to improve how it works. Today, we are focused on how we store, locate, and move information. Our projects include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, and more.
 
As a distributed team, we hire anywhere in the world, and at various levels of experience (entry, senior, staff). We look for people with unique perspectives and diverse backgrounds.
 
The base pay for this position currently ranges from $270,000 to $374,000, plus cryptocurrency, equity, and opportunities for upside through performance rewards in cryptocurrency and equity.  The base pay is based on a number of factors and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, experience, skills, abilities, training, and education.  We also have a great benefits package, including parental and other forms of leave, contributions to your retirement, and unlimited time off. For U.S.-based employees, we also provide competitive health, dental, and vision coverage for you and your family.