Chief of Staff to Founder

Who is Risk Labs?

Risk Labs is the foundation and core team whose mandate is to build and grow the UMA and Across protocol ecosystems.

What is UMA?

UMA’s optimistic oracle (OO) can record any verifiable truth or data onto a blockchain. UMA Purpose: UMA is the canonical source of truth that blockchains use to verify real world data. UMA Vision: UMA enables any verifiable truth to be recorded on-chain, trustlessly.

What is Across?

Across is a cross-chain bridge for L2s and rollups secured by UMA’s OO. Across’ purpose: Across is to fulfill crypto’s potential by making blockchains more usable, more accessible and more efficient. Across’ Vision: Intents are the standard in x-chain interoperability, and are settled by Across.

The role

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Chief of Staff to support our Founder in managing high-value relationships, strategic initiatives and technical research, and special product related projects. The ideal candidate is technical with experience in business development (BD), sales, or other external-facing roles, and a passion for DeFi or protocol-level infrastructure. This role requires exceptional professionalism, forward-thinking, and an innovative mindset.

Responsibilities

• Manage and prepare communications: Be heavily involved in external communications, predominantly from a product and BD lens. This includes, drafting, editing, and managing correspondence/ presentations/memos in a timely manner.
• Manage high-value relationships: Initiate conversations and nurture relationships, in collaboration with internal sales, product, or treasury team needs.
• Research and briefing: Conduct in-depth research on new and existing technologies within the industry, and present briefings on industry trends, technological advancements, and competitive analysis.
• Meeting follow up: Be detail oriented in your note taking, and ability to proactively follow through.

Requirements

• 4+ years in a technical BD or Product role in a relevant industry (crypto, DeFi, TradFi)
• Proven ability to conduct in-depth research on new and existing technologies, and present findings on industry trends and competitive analysis
• Strong analytical skills to understand and communicate technical and industry-related information effectively.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with a style of direct and able to ask the hard questions.
• Strong interpersonal skills that make it easy for you to collaborate with and build relationships with various stakeholders internally and externally.
• Your passion and deep understanding of the crypto industry makes it easy to stay up-to-date with industry trends and the latest cutting edge technologies.
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.

Compensation and Benefits

• Pay packages include competitive salaries & meaningful token options ($UMA and $ACX).
• Salaries for this role range from $120-180k (USD)
• Will pay in stablecoins or fiat.
• Philosophies for a culture that show we care: Take vacation when you need it, family care, training and development (just to name a few)
• 100% remote, which means we encourage you to create the work environment that you thrive in.
• At least two team wide offsites a year.

Our values:

1. We value each individual’s right to economic freedom.
2. We value openness, honesty, and directness.
3. We value integrity.
4. We value iterative learning.
5. We value taking smart risks.
6. We value creating an environment where everyone “does their best work”.

Why do we love working at Risk Labs?

We are a group that’s aligned with the ethos of the crypto industry and doing our best to make an impact for the industry and world at large. You’ll succeed with Risk Labs if you’re a self-starter, kind, adaptable, and passionate about making an impact. Risk Labs is a values driven team that strives to create an environment where we can do our best work, and succeed. We’re building products that we believe in, and continuing to strive for innovation and growth. Both personally and professionally we support each other to create a happy, healthy, and inspired team vibe, so we can remain motivated to build things the world needs and loves. We take pride in the fact that we are at once family-friendly as well as nomad-friendly.

UMA’s optimistic oracle is a decentralized truth machine for Web3- yes, that’s a bold and very exciting statement. We’ve built a solid foundation, in terms of the team, the technology, and the products, and the road map ahead is one full of exciting technical challenges, growth, and telling our story to the world. Across is creating an interoperable world where DeFi is seamless with its intents based architecture. We’ve grown from an early bridge, to a market leader, and won’t stop innovating and building. We have big dreams, and a team excited to bring them to life.

Still want to know more?

• Our team blends a mix of highly-sought engineers, and a diverse business team to showcase their high quality tech. Our international and fast-growing team includes a diverse background of experiences and has drawn world class talent. We have a great network of supportive investors from groups like: Placeholder, Blockchain Capital, Bain Capital, Coinbase, Dragonfly… to name a few.
• Teammates take the time off that they need and support each other to be their best selves- we care about your wellness.
• You will not get bored with Risk Labs. We are constantly developing, building, experimenting and evolving. Yes we try to allow people to focus on their specific product areas, but things are always shifting and evolving. There’s no right answer and we’re all just doing our best!