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.
The Role
We seek a Research Lead to lead client-facing research under the Applied Research organization. This role is pivotal in providing 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 system. This person will lead a team of researchers to analyze on-chain and off-chain data, develop models, and provide actionable insights into the rapidly evolving crypto and Web3 ecosystem. This role requires deep expertise in blockchain analytics, quantitative research, statistical modeling, and strong leadership skills to drive data-driven decision-making and the ability to interface directly with clients.
