DeFi Researcher

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. We build institutional-grade vaults for decentralized finance, delivering risk-adjusted onchain yields for capital at scale. Designed by the most vigilant, quantitative minds in crypto and informed by years of research. 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 institution — 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.
About Applied Research
The Applied Research Organization at Gauntlet seeks to answer DeFi’s hardest questions. We provide deep quantitative expertise to top DeFi protocols and ecosystems, including Uniswap, Near, and Movement, on how they can grow, optimize, and de-risk mechanisms within their various systems. Unlike other product-oriented teams at Gauntlet, the Applied Research team provides white-glove solutions and services to top protocols and clients within the Web3, DeFi space.
The Role
We seek to expand our research team to lead client-facing engagements under the Applied Research organization. This role is client-facing and requires direct interaction between the researcher and the client (often top leaders/thinkers in the industry).We are hiring at all levels, from Junior to Lead, based on experience and ability. Junior Researchers are expected to perform high-quality and publishable research on behalf of various clients with direction and guidance from more senior researchers. In contrast, Lead researchers will be expected to support the roadmap and deliverables of multiple clients whilst upholding the quality bar for a team of more junior researchers. This role requires deep expertise in blockchain analytics, quantitative research, and statistical modeling, strong leadership skills to drive data-driven decision-making, and strong communication skills with the ability to interface directly with clients.