DeFi Researcher

About this role

Set is building crypto asset management tools and products to democratize wealth creation tools. We believe that decentralized technologies will be a driving force in creating a new global financial system that is more equitable, inclusive, and efficient.

We’re looking to add a DeFi researcher — someone who loves DeFi, markets, financial engineering, and mechanism design. As a key member of the financial product’s team, your mission is to lead technical research into various financial protocols and mechanisms. In this role, you will be working closely with the protocol engineering team on technical design and implementation of structured products and financial primitives.

About Set

• We are a team primarily based out of San Francisco and New York City comprised of alumni from UC Berkeley, Stanford, Square, DRW, Airbnb, Coinbase (Earn), Consensys, and Apple
• We’re backed and advised by some of the top investors in Silicon Valley and DeFi including 1kx, Hashed, Craft Ventures, ParaFi, Mechanism Capital, DeFiance, Threshold, Social Capital, and Kindred Ventures
• We have a strong culture of continuous learning, authenticity, and transparency

What you’ll achieve:

• Exploring and evaluating protocols that can help the team create new or improve existing financial products and primitives
• Working with protocol engineering team to architect, spec and implement your research
• Serving as an educational resource for the rest of the team

What you bring:

• You have deep knowledge of DeFi, crypto communities, and knowledge of traditional finance products. You know what’s happening, what is working and not working
• You have foundational knowledge of math and/or computer science
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to discuss and explain technical concepts, solutions and architectures
• You have extreme open-mindedness to new ideas with a mindset of continuous learning

Don’t check all the boxes? No problem. We’re passionate about building a diverse team, so if you think you’ve got what it takes—apply anyway. While we have a good idea of what we need, we’re ready for you to challenge our thinking on who needs to be in this role.

Our Values

• Collaborate Empathetically: Be caring to customers / partners, understand people’s actions and what they’re going to need; We proactively understand where people are coming from and try to understand why they do what they do. We recognize that each entity we interact with are human beings. We’re not beneath doing anything, willing to do anything to help others and for us to succeed
• Deliver Results: Deliver with the right quality and in a timely fashion; We apply judgment to ensure we focus on results vs. process; We think strategically and articulate what we are and are not trying to do
• No Rugging: Express information in a clear and accurate way without disguising its unpleasantness. Be open, trustworthy, and truthful; Hide no secrets; Do not leave others abruptly in a problematic or difficult situation. If you say you are going to do something, it is assumed you will complete it unless you otherwise communicate.
• Think Like a Scientist: Create hypothesis, try proving / disproving them, always willing to run experiments and change our minds, intellectual honesty, accepting the brutal truth, keeping an open mind, learn to unlearn / relearn

Benefits of working at Set

We believe people do their best work when they are healthy and happy. At Set, we offer:

• Competitive salaries and equity compensation
• Flexible vacation time
• Health and dental insurance.
• A flexible remote-friendly work environment

We’re passionate about personal development and providing the resources you need to grow including company offsites, industry conferences and access to online courses or anything else you feel would help you to level up.