Job description
Gauntlet leads the field in quantitative research and optimization of DeFi economics. We manage market risk, optimize growth, and ensure economic safety for protocols facilitating most spot trading, borrowing, and lending activity across all of DeFi, protecting and optimizing the largest protocols and networks in the industry. As of April 2025, Gauntlet manages risk and incentives covering over $42 billion in customer TVL.
Gauntlet continually publishes cutting-edge research that informs our risk models, alerts, and analysis, and is among the most cited institutions — including academic institutions — in terms of peer-reviewed papers addressing DeFi as a subject. We’re a Series B company with around 75 employees, operating remote-first with a home base in New York City.
Our mission is to drive adoption and understanding in the financial systems of the future. The unique challenges of decentralized systems call for innovative approaches in mechanism design, smart contract development, and financial product utilization. Gauntlet leads in advancing this knowledge, ensuring safe progression through the evolving landscape of financial innovation.
Responsibilities
Drive Market Research & Strategic Partnerships: Track emerging yield strategies, protocol developments, and ecosystem incentives across chains to provide the Curation team with a competitive edge in vault deployment and optimization. Actively monitor DAO governance proposals, forum discussions, and protocol roadmaps to inform risk assessments, vault growth strategies, and partnership opportunities. Identify and evaluate live or upcoming liquidity mining, ve-token, and fee-rebate programs. Support business development by analyzing incentive structures, stakeholder alignment, and contributing to deal execution through opportunity qualification and proposal development.
Execute Risk Assessment & Due Diligence: Conduct structured protocol reviews focused on solvency, oracle infrastructure, governance mechanisms, and security posture. Perform in-depth risk assessments by analyzing historical on-chain data, protocol codebase, and market dynamics to generate informed recommendations on vault growth, asset onboarding, and risk parameterization. Collaborate with auditors and protocol teams to resolve issues and ensure timely launch readiness. Monitor and respond to market events with clear internal communication and contribute to the evolution of Gauntlet’s on-chain risk offerings.
Develop Growth & Incentive Analytics: Build and maintain dashboards to track incentive rates, protocol yield performance, and vault-level KPIs across chains. Monitor competitive benchmarks and market dynamics to ensure vaults maintain a strong relative position in the ecosystem. Perform creative, non-standard data analysis—including natural experiments, cohort retention, and TVL deltas—to support partnership strategy, incentive optimization, and proactive risk mitigation. Use these insights to inform data-driven decisions that drive sustainable growth and preserve Gauntlet’s competitive edge in DeFi.
Enable Operational Excellence in Vault Deployments: Launch and monitor Vaults by configuring oracles, LLTVs, Vault parameters, and multisig protocols. Ensure accurate integration with Gauntlet tools and continuously monitor active markets to maintain optimal performance.
Qualifications
- 1-3 yrs in crypto-native research, strategy, or trading seat with evidence of directing capital into third-party incentive programs.
- Comfort reading Solidity/Vyper, but you’re not the auditor of record.
- Fluency with on-chain data tools (Dune, Subgraphs) and Python or JS for ad-hoc analysis.
- Track record of shaping deals or product decisions through crisp memos—think equity-research write-ups or growth-analytics briefs.
- Strong personal interest in DeFi, with a proactive mindset and continuous drive to stay at the forefront of protocol developments, yield opportunities, and strategic differentiation.
- Common Sense and Competitive
Bonus Points
- Appetite to mentor as team size and volume scales.
- Rolodex across DAO treasuries, defi protocols, oracles, liquidators, venture funds, or large LPs.
Benefits and Perks
- Remote first - work from anywhere in the US & CAN!
- Competitive packages with the added opportunity for incentive-based compensation
- Regular in-person company retreats and cross-country “office visit” perk
- 100% paid medical, dental and vision premiums for employees
- Laptop provided
- $1,000 WFH stipend upon joining
- $100 per month reimbursement for fitness-related expenses
- Monthly reimbursement for home internet, phone, and cellular data
- Unlimited vacation policy
- 100% paid parental leave of 12 weeks
- Fertility benefits
Please note at this time our hiring is reserved for potential employees who are able to work within the contiguous United States and Canada. Should you need alternative accommodations, please note that in your application.
The national pay range for this Role is $165,000 - $205,000 plus additional On Target Earnings potential by level and equity in the company. Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for a company of our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits, and other reward opportunities we provide. Individual pay rate decisions are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skill set, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company.
#LI-Remote
