Head of Platform Integrations (Blockchain DeFi)

About Acala

Acala’s mission is to build and nurture the autonomous financial infrastructure of the decentralized web. Delivering on this mission will bring more financial accessibility, opportunity, and prosperity to everyone on the planet through a new, open financial system.

Our core project is the Acala Network itself, which we expect to become the de facto DeFi parachain and stablecoin of the Polkadot ecosystem. Polkadot provides the underlying trust primitives to our parachain, upon which we’ve built our suite of financial primitives including; Multi-collateralized Stablecoin; Trustless Staking Derivatives, and Unified Decentralized Exchange. These primitives will be used by us and other teams to power open DeFi innovations, and burn away all need for the parasitic intermediaries that inhabit almost every conventional trust-based financial system.

We have secured our support from eminent backers like Polychain, Coinbase Venture, Pantera and many more. We’re still preparing Acala’s parachain launch, so there’s no better time to join our mission and be a part of the future that we’re building. Because whoever you are, we’re building it for you 🚀

About the role

Our recent Kusama parachain slot auction victory has caught the DeFi community’s attention, and there are already plenty of teams out there that want to optimize their applications for our networks (Acala & Karura). As Head of Platform Integrations at Acala your role will focus on the successful integration of these blockchain projects with the Acala network and its DeFi primitives. This is a Technical Leadership role and will lead our Integrations strategy across multiple teams, and co-ordinate all of the Engineering activities involved, before and after launch.

Reporting to the CEO, your objective will be to run the technical partnerships between Acala and other blockchain projects building DeFi applications for the Polkadot ecosystem, wherever they are in the world. To successfully deliver this you’ll need two things: A very strong understanding of the blockchain-based DeFi space across multiple ecosystems, including Ethereum and Polkadot; Experience leading the Software Product Integration process between companies from start-to-finish, from establishing the initial business case conversation through to coding due diligence, and working with Engineering teams on cross-platform technical integrations.

Our ideal candidate will be well-versed in the history of DeFi products and services in the blockchain world, and will already have spent some time working with blockchain networks and DeFi applications, whether commercially successful or not. But as an Engineering-centric startup, at minimum we need a technically-minded Platform Integrations Lead with a mature interest in decentralized applications and the general concept behind blockchains and smart contracts.

What you’ll do

• Lead all technical integrations between Acala and its partners by working closely with the Engineering Team(s)
• Own the Platform Integrations Pipeline and co-ordinate the current and planned integrations with the other teams
• Regularly work with our VP of Growth to spread Acala’s story and novel approach to DeFi in the Polkadot ecosystem
• Work closely with our Product Managers on new Acala product strategies and features

What it takes

• Prior experience in Software Development, and a working knowledge of Substrate and/or Solidity
• Expert-level understanding of blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance (DeFi)
• 5+ years of Software platform / product experience, in an Integrations or Sales capacity
• Technical and/or product management experience on a blockchain project
• Native or fluent English and communication skills

What we offer

• Competitive contract-based compensation (you’ll have to invoice us from wherever you are)
• Flexible working hours within Pacific timezones
• Collaborative, transparent and empowering work culture
• Meaningful work on creating better technologies for a fairer future
• Opportunity to work in a multinational, high-performance team with diverse backgrounds

More Information

• Series A statement by CEO Ruitao Su
• Web3 Grant statement by COO Bette Chen
• Coinbase investment statement by Growth VP Dan Reecer
• Get started! Try out our Testnet for yourself

Our Team

Working across New Zealand, the USA & China, our team has emerged from our shared desire for a fairer and more inclusive financial system - in direct contrast to the clear shortcomings of the current institutions that run the world. We’re just people like you, but we’re some of the leading blockchain innovators, Substrate and Rust developers, full-stack dApp developers and economists.

Our Values

The community we’re building is shaped by our values and fuelled by the needs of all humans:

• Inclusion, Care, Trust, and Respect
• Empowerment
• Guidance and Support
• Friendship, Community, Real Relationships

We’re building Acala based on a core set of values we believe are in line with the tenets of web3:

• True decentralization
• Less Trust, More Truth
• Integrity
• Accountability
• Empowering individuals with more autonomy

What We Have Achieved

Acala was founded in 2019 as an early Web3 Foundation grant recipient, and is an ecosystem and education partner of W3F and Polkadot. We have delivered 3 successful live testnet candidates acquiring 14,000 new accounts and 140,000 transactions within the first 3 weeks. And we expect to be among the first to launch on both Kusama and Polkadot in 2021. Stay tuned!

For more information on this position, our employment conditions, or anything Acala related not linked above, get in touch with our Auckland-based Talent Manager: [email protected].