Technical Lead / CTO at Authentic Memory Full-time · Munich-based preferred

 

About us

We have a small window of time before AI-generated media becomes indistinguishable from authentic content. A few years from now, mistrust in digital media will grow large enough that historical records saved at archives will have their authenticity questioned. We need to make sure now that we can provide reliable indicators of authenticity for digital historical records. This is a key moment in time. 

 

The Global Authentic Memory Initiative (GAMI) is building an open cryptographic infrastructure that lets archives, memorial institutions, and libraries create long-term and publicly verifiable proofs of existence, integrity, and institutional provenance for their digital records. Our architecture is technically mature and uses SHA-256 file fingerprinting, Ed25519 institutional signatures, Bitcoin-anchored timestamps via OpenTimestamps as well as DID:web-based key management. No content leaves an institution, no central authority can revoke a valid proof, and the entire toolchain is open source.

 

We are a small, interdisciplinary non-profit at an early and consequential stage pursuing a societally motivated and forward-thinking mission: to protect digital witness records in a new age of media where they are increasingly contested. (Learn more about our mission on our website.) Our founding team spans computer science, physics, and philosophy; our academic advisory board includes professors across disciplines at TU Munich, LMU, and Princeton. The core architecture is built, and the first institutional pilots are underway.

 

About the role

What we need now is the person who takes technical ownership and makes the system better than we could on our own. This is a founding engineering role, which means real responsibility for a technically meaningful product and for the direction it takes.

 

Core system development

  • Own the full development lifecycle of our verification platform, from cryptographic foundations to the public-facing verification interface.

  • Maintain and evolve our four-layer proof architecture (file fingerprinting, GAMI Proof Record construction, institutional digital signatures, distributed timestamp anchoring).

  • Ensure the continued cryptographic integrity of the system as it scales and standards evolve, e.g. planning for post-quantum resilience.

  • Review and improve the existing codebase with your own informed perspective on architecture.



Archival integration

  • Build integrations with diverse archival systems, including Archivematica and Preservica.

  • Ensure usability for institutions with very different technical capacities.



Technical Leadership and Communication

  • Build and manage a small engineering team of 2-3 people covering frontend and backend development.

  • Be the technical voice in conversations with our institutional partners and in public-facing technical communications.

  • Contribute to shaping the long-term technical roadmap with your own ideas.



Minimum qualifications

  • Senior software engineering experience with a track record of leading complex systems end-to-end

  • Strong working knowledge of applied cryptography, including hashing, digital signatures, key management, and the judgment to reason about integrity-critical system design

  • Fluency in English (internal language is English; German for institutional partner work is an add-on)

  • Comfortable representing technical work to non-technical institutional partners

  • Willingness and ability to travel to Germany for key occasions, min. once per year



Preferred qualifications

  • Experience with blockchain-based timestamping or anchoring protocols

  • Familiarity with archival systems and standards: Archivematica, Preservica, EAD, Dublin Core, PREMIS, or comparable

  • Experience integrating software with heterogeneous database environments or institutional data systems

  • Prior experience in a startup, early-stage organization, or similar setting, with (co-)responsibility for building a tech infrastructure from the ground up

  • Hands-on experience with one or more of the specific standards in our stack: Ed25519 / RFC 8032, SHA-256 / FIPS 180-4, OpenTimestamps, DID:web, JSON-LD, RFC 8785, or C2PA

  • Fluency in German

  • Based in Munich, or the ability to travel to Munich for important meetings, e.g. with partner institutions

 

If you feel you don’t meet the criteria perfectly, don’t self-eliminate. We highly encourage you to still apply! We would rather have someone who is smart and driven by similar values to ours but does not have all listed qualifications join our team, than for them not to apply at all.

 

What we offer

  • Influence over architectural decisions as a founding team member from day one

  • A highly impactful role: We are building the solution to a time-critical problem with tangible benefit for future generations.

  • An interdisciplinary, international team with a non-hierarchical, democratic work culture

  • Remote work possible, with Munich as home base

  • A salaried full-time position. Compensation is discussed individually.

 Start date: As soon as possible.

How to apply

Send your CV and a short note on why this role
interests you to application@authenticmemory.org

If anything is unclear, just reach out.

More at https://authenticmemory.org/join-us/

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