Hardware Internship Program - Edinburgh, On-site

About the Hardware Team

The Hardware Team at Nethermind is pioneering biometric security solutions. We apply advanced cryptography and blockchain to create secure, privacy-preserving hardware systems for identity verification and tamper-proof authentication.

Areas of Internship Focus:

• 3D Biometric Imaging & Reconstruction: Research and develop computer vision techniques for low cost 3D biometric reconstruction to improve matching accuracy and spoof detection.

• Privacy-Preserving CNN Improvement: Develop continual learning methods to adapt CNNs for biometric verification without storing raw data. Use flow or score-matching models to generate privacy-safe synthetic data, enabling on-device or TEE-contained updates without degrading accuracy.

• TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) Integration: Implement secure pipelines where camera capture, CNN inference, encryption, and attestation all occur inside a TEE for maximum security.

• Presentation Attack Defence: Designing and testing methods to identify attempts to fool our biometric system.

• Next-Generation Imaging Methods: Explore alternative imaging approaches to reduce power consumption, enable device miniaturisation, and enhance image quality.

• Tamper Prevention: Designing hardware and manufacturing methods to ensure robustness against physical tampering or counterfeiting.

• Manufacturing Optimisation: Reviewing form factor, component selection, assembly, and test fixture processes to reduce overall cost and improve user experience.

• Applied Cryptography: Working with the research team to incorporate MPC (Multi-Party Computation) and ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof) protocols to enhance biometric data security.

Diverse Skills You Can Learn and Use

• Biometric Image Processing & ML: Build and train models for biometric feature extraction, matching, 3D reconstruction, and anti-spoofing.

• Machine Learning Pipeline Research: Explore privacy-preserving ML flows for improving CNNs in production without storing training data.

• Electronics & Sensor Engineering: Work on tamper prevention, modular component design, power optimisation, and miniaturisation for biometric devices.

• Tamper Prevention Hardware Design: Apply secure manufacturing techniques and security engineering to prevent and detect physical intrusion.

• Secure Cryptographic Protocols: Implement MPC, ZKP, and TEE-based processing to ensure biometric data never leaves the secure environment in raw form.

• Embedded Systems & Firmware: Develop firmware to integrate sensors, cryptographic modules, embedded deployment (Yokto) and secure data pipelines.

• Imaging System Innovation: Research and test imaging methods that reduce power draw while enhancing accuracy and reliability.

• Product Prototyping & Testing: Design, build, and evaluate hardware prototypes for accuracy, reliability, and security.

We Are Looking For

• Machine Learning Engineers with expertise in computer vision, biometric recognition, 3D reconstruction, or anti-spoofing techniques.

• Embedded developers experienced with Yocto, deploying on embedded systems, or working with Trusted Execution Environments

• Electronics Engineers experienced with either sensor systems, power optimisation, PCB design, tamper prevention, penetration testing.

• Manufacturing Engineers with knowledge of secure manufacturing processes, or experience in component sourcing.

• MPC & ZKP Engineers skilled in designing privacy-preserving protocols for biometric verification or secure enclave integration.

• Optical Engineers with experience in advanced imaging methods, preferably with biometric experience.

Helpful Experience Includes:

• Biometric data acquisition and processing

• Applied cryptography for secure hardware

• Industrial design with a security focus

• Hardware security evaluation and testing

What We Offer/ Benefits

• Global and Diverse Workforce: You'll work with people from various backgrounds and cultures.

• Learning and Development: You'll work on innovative, challenging projects and have access to experts and mentors to enhance your skills.

• Career Growth: Access to training, mentorship, and opportunities to contribute to open-source initiatives.

• Collaborative and Innovative Culture: We foster teamwork and encourage new ideas.

Our Commitment to Diversity

At Nethermind, we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members. We believe a variety of perspectives drives innovation and leads to better solutions for the blockchain community.

Ready to Join Us?

If you’re passionate about biometric hardware, cryptography, and building secure systems that work in the real world, we’d love to hear from you.

Click Apply for this Job to start your journey with Nethermind.