Cryptography Intern

We are looking for students with an interest in cryptography to join a 6-month internship with HP’s cryptography engineering strategy team, based in Bristol with the company’s Security Lab that researches the future of security technologies and techniques to make computing devices and data more secure for users and enterprises.

This internship is an exciting opportunity to apply your cryptographic expertise to the development of cutting-edge products, to contribute to HP strategy and increase the effectiveness of cryptographic engineering, and to do it all within the collaborative culture at HP. As a company and cryptography team we are dedicated to attracting diverse talent from all backgrounds. Please speak to us to find out more.

The successful candidate would work with HP cryptographers to ensure the secure deployment of cryptography, advising on product design and choice of cryptographic primitives, and prototyping and investigating the use of new cryptographic capabilities. The team's responsibility extends across HP, creating opportunities for the candidate to work with a wide range of technologists and have influence in varied fields, from new security and privacy paradigms to massive public key infrastructures and constrained processing environments. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to scale the team's reach by contributing to decisions, guidance, tools and training that empower engineers across the company to build products with world-leading security.

Join us in our office in the heart of the bustling Bristol city centre, within walking distance of the old town cafes and restaurants, in the middle of the city’s thriving startup and academic tech ecosystem. We are looking for curious and creative individuals who enjoy teamwork, have an excellent grounding in cryptography, and are relentlessly excited to have impact solving real world challenges.

Responsibilities

During the internship you will be given a project to explore approaches, designs or techniques to achieve outcomes. The specific project will be defined with your interests and skillsets in mind, with possible topic areas including, but not limited to, quantum resistance, secure protocol design, and cryptographic security assessment.  You will receive supervision, help, advice and direction from members of the cryptography team and have access to the support of a broad range of security experts from the HP Security Lab. You will be expected to learn about new areas associated with the project, to work with the team and also independently as required, and to discuss your approaches and results with the team. During the internship you will be expected to write up your work and present the work to the team and the rest of the Security Lab.

Mandatory skills and experience required

• Studying towards a Doctoral, Master’s, or possibly a Bachelor’s university degree in a relevant topic

• Expertise in theoretical or applied cryptography 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Keen to learn and able to progress on live projects as part of a team or independently

Additional desirable skills and experience

• Practical experience of cryptographic libraries

• Familiarity with cryptographic protocols

• Awareness of system security analysis concepts

• Ability to be innovative in the area of cryptography or its application

Cryptography questions

As part of the application process, candidates are expected to submit a covering letter including answers to the following two questions:

Please describe, in your own words, how to send a message from Alice to Bob that has confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity. You should justify cryptography choices you make, and comment on practical aspects of cryptography required to ensure security (maximum 2000 characters including spaces).

Please tell us about a topic within cryptography that interests you (maximum 1500 characters including spaces).

Using AI tools to help answer these questions is acceptable, provided the ideas and reasoning are entirely your own. You are required to state whether AI was used, and, if it was, to note briefly how it was used (e.g., for proofreading or clarity). If your application progresses to the next stage, we’ll discuss your answers in more detail, so ensure you can confidently explain the reasoning behind them.