JOB OPENING

Postdoctoral Research Position in Computer Science

What are we searching for?

Postdoctoral Research Position in Computer Science

We are looking for a postdoc researcher to co-lead research and development on blockchain-enabled Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) for Collaborative Economy communities. 

What is P2P Models?

P2P Models is a research project to build decentralized, democratic & sustainable Collaborative Economy organizations. The project is 5 year long (2018-2022), EU-funded (ERC grant of 1.5M€), based at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), with Principal Investigator and advisors from the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.

The project follows a practical approach, aiming to maximize our social impact through both our socio-technical research and the building of free/open source software codesigned with communities. Thus, this is an interdisciplinary research project integrated by computer scientists, social scientists, digital designers and communication specialists. We hold a critical stance towards blockchain while exploring its potential for commons-oriented communities. You can see more info on our values in the About page, on the project approach in this tweet thread, and more on our research questions in this other tweet thread.

Expectations

As a posdoc you will:

  • Co-lead the building of free/open source software components to facilitate governance and economic models in a blockchain environment, with a focus on supporting collaboration and communities
  • Collaborate within a multidisciplinary team (social researchers, data scientists, designers, computer scientists) to build pilots and experiments with our case-study communities. Currently these are the largest European co-op and the largest subtitle creation community
  • Present your work in international conferences, and publish in leading research journals.
  • Maintain fluent communication with international academic groups, blockchain projects and the developer community to facilitate collaboration, interoperability, reuse, and adoption

What we offer

Flexible working-hours

  • You may work remotely, with regular face to face meetings
  • We work with a goal oriented approach
  • We believe in a family life & work balance, placing life in the centre

 

Opportunities to 

  • visibilize your work internationally
  • publish in high impact journals (JCR Q1 & Q2)
  • teach at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, if interested
  • collaborate with our international network of leading researchers (e.g. Harvard, MIT, CNRS)

 

Joining a team that 

  • values diversity and nice interpersonal relationships
  • strives to have flat, inclusive and feminist processes

 

Training & Education

  • We provide funding for visiting fellowships, conferences,  hackathons and training to improve professional skills

Minimum requirements

  • PhD (completed or planning to be submitted in less than a year) in Computer Science, Telecommunications, Information Technology, Industrial Engineering or related fields
  • Strong interest in some of these areas: software architecture, decentralised / distributed / P2P technologies, Free/Open Source Software, Commons-Based Peer Production, algorithmic governance, science and technology studies, and/or Internet and politics
  • Fluency in English
  • Be based in Madrid (Spain) and/or available for face to face meetings once a week, when the current pandemic allows
  • Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams, autonomy, critical thinking

Bonus points for any combination of these

  • Research publications in relevant conferences and/or journals in Computer Science 
  • Experience with professional software development and/or contributing to free/open source projects
  • Experience with decentralized architectures (e.g. blockchain, P2P systems like IPFS, federated systems)
  • Experience in Agile methodologies, research projects and/or multidisciplinary teams.
  • Ability to ship high quality, well crafted code
  • Fluency in Spanish
  • Interest/experience in social movements, activism, commons-oriented initiatives, co-ops, and/or open collaborative communities
  • Teamwork and interpersonal skills, including collaboration, empathy and adaptation
  • Underrepresented demographics in the blockchain field to increase the team diversity

Salary Range

26-30.000€ (gross annual salary), for 0-3 years of postdoctoral experience. For more experienced profiles, salary may surpass the mentioned range.

Application Instructions

Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible, maximum by 16 November 2020, in order to start in early January 2021. The position is renewable yearly for up to 2 years. Interested candidates should submit (1) a CV including 2-3 named references, and (2) a brief cover letter explaining their motivation to apply, research experience, career plans, and available start date to postdoc@p2pmodels.odoo.com. Informal enquiries are welcome and should be made to p2pmodels@ucm.es including in the subject “Open position: Postdoc”.

If you didn’t, please check out more on our Culture, Perks  and Work conditions.