Chief Scientist | Decentralized AI

Chief Scientist | Permanent | US | Decentralized AI Systems

Plexus are partnered with a Team working on Decentralized AI infrastructure and are expanding the Research team with a Chief Scientist hire to lead the current Research team & efforts.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership and vision for the organization’s research agenda in decentralized learning, distributed inference, and trustless AI collaboration.
• Drive innovation in incentive mechanisms and protocol design to support scalable, open, and community-governed AI ecosystems.
• Lead cross-functional teams in prototyping advanced experimental systems and guide the translation of foundational research into production-grade solutions.
• Serve as a key scientific thought leader internally and externally, shaping the company’s position in global conversations around decentralized AI, federated learning, and applied cryptography.
• Mentor and develop a high-calibre research team while fostering a culture of scientific excellence, openness, and rigor.
• Represent the company at major academic and industry events, establishing strategic collaborations with top research institutions, open-source communities, and standards bodies.

Requirements

• PhD in computer science, machine learning, cryptography, or a related discipline, with a record of impactful research and publications.
• Recognized expertise in distributed machine learning, federated systems, secure computation, or decentralized incentive design.
• Proven track record of guiding cutting-edge research into deployed systems or protocols with measurable real-world impact.
• Exceptional communication skills and experience interfacing with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executives, regulators, and developers.
• Experience advising or contributing to open-source, decentralized protocol development or working at the intersection of cryptographic systems and AI is highly desirable.
• Bonus: Active involvement in academic or standards communities; familiarity with zero-knowledge proofs, token economics, or system-level AI optimization.

If this role sounds of interest to you or anyone else, please apply within.