DeFi Quant Researcher

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a DeFi Quant Researcher based in India. This role offers the opportunity to research and develop systematic trading strategies specifically for decentralized finance markets.

You will investigate on-chain mechanics and market structure to uncover measurable, repeatable sources of alpha.

Your work will span DeFi protocols including automated market makers, lending markets, perpetuals, yield vaults, and cross-chain venues.

You will combine mathematical rigor, statistical research, and strong programming skills to turn raw blockchain data into actionable strategies.

The role provides end-to-end ownership, from hypothesis generation and backtesting through deployment, monitoring, and iteration.

You will work closely with portfolio managers and engineers in a highly technical, research-driven environment where ideas can move quickly into live capital.

This opportunity is particularly suited to a self-directed researcher with deep DeFi knowledge and a strong interest in systematic on-chain trading.

Accountabilities

• Research and develop systematic trading strategies across decentralized finance protocols, including AMMs, lending markets, perpetuals, yield vaults, and cross-chain trading venues.
• Identify and validate alpha signals using on-chain data such as liquidity movements, wallet behavior, MEV activity, funding rates, and protocol-level incentives.
• Analyze smart contract mechanics, protocol architecture, tokenomics, and market structures to identify structural and exploitable trading opportunities.
• Build rigorous backtests and simulations that accurately account for DeFi-specific factors including gas costs, slippage, block timing, execution constraints, and data availability.
• Develop research pipelines and analytical tooling using on-chain data sources, raw blockchain data, and relevant decentralized data platforms.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to translate validated research into production-ready strategies and deploy them against live capital.
• Monitor live strategy performance, investigate deviations from expected results, and iterate rapidly based on market behavior and empirical evidence.
• Contribute to shared quantitative research infrastructure, data pipelines, experimentation frameworks, and on-chain analytics capabilities.
• Maintain high research standards by actively testing for lookahead bias, data leakage, overfitting, survivorship bias, and other methodological weaknesses.

Requirements

• Strong mathematical, scientific, or quantitative background, ideally demonstrated through a degree or postgraduate education in mathematics, physics, computer science, statistics, or a comparable discipline.
• Deep, hands-on familiarity with DeFi protocols and on-chain market structure, supported by meaningful practical experience rather than purely theoretical knowledge.
• Proven experience working with on-chain data sources such as The Graph, Dune, blockchain node data, or comparable datasets and building research workflows around them.
• Strong Python programming skills for quantitative research, data analysis, simulation, and strategy development.
• Familiarity with Solidity, smart contract development, or smart contract auditing is a plus.
• Strong statistical rigor and a disciplined approach to validating quantitative hypotheses, particularly around data leakage, lookahead bias, overfitting, and execution assumptions.
• Ability to independently own research from idea generation through validation, implementation, and ongoing evaluation.
• For junior candidates, strong evidence of research capability through relevant projects, open-source contributions, competitive programming, Kaggle work, or on-chain trading experiments.
• For senior candidates, a demonstrable and attributable track record in DeFi, blockchain markets, or systematic on-chain trading is highly valuable.
• Strong analytical thinking, curiosity, attention to detail, and the ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving research environment.
• Willingness to work across Asia or US time zones to support live market coverage and rapid strategy iteration.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work on systematic trading strategies at the intersection of quantitative finance and decentralized markets.
• End-to-end ownership of research, from developing hypotheses and signals to backtesting, deployment, and live performance monitoring.
• Direct collaboration with experienced portfolio managers, quantitative researchers, and engineering teams.
• Exposure to a broad range of DeFi protocols, on-chain datasets, market structures, and emerging trading opportunities.
• Opportunity to develop strategies that can progress from research concepts to deployment with live capital.
• Access to shared research infrastructure, on-chain data pipelines, and specialized quantitative tooling.
• Highly technical, research-first environment that values independent thinking, rigor, and high-agency execution.
• Rolling start and international working environment with opportunities across global markets and time zones.

How Jobgether Works We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team.

We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!

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