Formal Verification Scientist (Lean 4 & Mathlib)

Formal Verification Scientist (Lean 4 & Mathlib)

About the Role

What if your deep mathematical training could directly shape how AI understands and reasons about formal proof? We're looking for Formal Verification Scientists to translate sophisticated mathematical arguments into machine-verifiable Lean 4 proofs — pushing the boundaries of what automated reasoning can express, capture, and verify.

This is a fully remote, flexible contract role built for mathematicians who thrive at the intersection of rigorous proof construction and cutting-edge AI research. If you find satisfaction in taking a dense, elegant argument and expressing it with precision a machine can verify, this role was made for you.

• Organization: Alignerr
• Type: Hourly Contract
• Location: Remote
• Commitment: 10–40 hours/week

What You'll Do

• Translate informal mathematical proofs into Lean 4 (and related proof systems) with a focus on clarity, correctness, and structural elegance
• Analyze domain-specific and general proofs to identify gaps, hidden assumptions, and formalizable sub-structures
• Construct formalizations that test the limits of existing proof assistants — especially where tools struggle or fail entirely
• Collaborate with AI researchers to design, refine, and evaluate strategies for improving formal verification pipelines
• Develop readable, reproducible proof scripts aligned with mathematical best practices and proof assistant idioms
• Provide expert guidance on proof decomposition, lemma selection, and structuring strategies for formal models
• Investigate where automated provers break down and articulate precisely why — whether due to complexity, missing lemmas, or insufficient library support
• Create Lean proofs that reveal deeper patterns or generalizations implicit in the original mathematics

Who You Are

• Hold a Master's degree or higher in Mathematics, Logic, Theoretical Computer Science, or a closely related field
• Possess a strong foundation in rigorous proof writing across areas such as algebra, analysis, topology, logic, or discrete mathematics
• Have hands-on experience with Lean (Lean 3 or Lean 4), Coq, Isabelle/HOL, Agda, or comparable systems — Lean 4 strongly preferred
• Deeply enthusiastic about formal verification, proof assistants, and the future of mechanized mathematics
• Able to translate informal mathematical arguments into clean, structured, machine-verifiable formal proofs
• Mathematically mature and comfortable working at the frontier of what proof assistants can currently handle

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with type theory, the Curry-Howard correspondence, and proof automation tools
• Experience contributing to large-scale formalization projects such as Mathlib
• Exposure to theorem provers where automated reasoning frequently fails or requires substantial manual scaffolding
• Prior experience with data annotation, data quality evaluation, or AI training workflows
• Strong communication skills for explaining formalization decisions, edge cases, and reasoning strategies to cross-disciplinary collaborators

Why Join Us

• Work on cutting-edge AI projects alongside world-leading research labs
• Fully remote and flexible — work when and where it suits you
• Freelance autonomy with the intellectual depth of meaningful, frontier-level mathematical work
• Direct exposure to how advanced AI systems are trained and evaluated on formal reasoning
• Contribute to expanding the frontier of what machines can understand and verify
• Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as new projects launch