Algorithmic Trader - DeFi

About Wintermute

At Wintermute our mission is to enable, empower and advance the truly decentralized world for more transparent and efficient markets and products.

Wintermute is one of the largest algorithmic trading firms in digital assets globally. We manage billions in assets and trade more than $5B+/day across dozens of different trading platforms. Wintermute provides liquidity algorithmically across most CeFi and DeFi exchanges and via OTC. Wintermute was one of the earliest adopters of DeFi and is a big supporter of decentralized finance.

We are widely known to be one of the largest and most advanced liquidity providers in DeFi. We support all major DEX, trading platforms, AMMs, RFQs, aggregators and we work with most major chains. Wintermute is an official market maker for many of the most prominent blockchain projects and we actively support the DeFi ecosystem: we invest in and help scale early stage DeFi projects, we actively participate in governance of various protocols and cooperate with projects of building the missing pieces of the ecosystem. Wintermute is a hyper-growth highly profitable business with a very ambitious vision and roadmap. We are backed by Lightspeed, Pantera Capital, Sino Global Capital, Blockchain.com Ventures, Avon Ventures by Fidelity Investments, DeFi Alliance and other top tier investors.

We are run as a technology company, not a financial service provider, and we build our culture around core values of ambition, collaboration, entrepreneurship, transparency and meritocracy.

Working at Wintermute DeFi team**

We are looking for an Algorithmic Trader with strong coding skills (Python) and a curiosity about high-frequency trading, market making and crypto trading. At Wintermute, you will be responsible for your own “desk” right from the start. You will have the opportunity to develop your own product (trading algorithms, trading strategies), while also getting advice and guidance from very experienced traders and developers, including the founders/management team. You will get a lot of independence and responsibility right away, and you’ll learn at an unprecedented speed!

What will you work on

After a short training period, you will be assigned your own “desk” with related P&L responsibility and you’ll become an owner of that desk. You’ll be looking how to build and/or expand your desk across various levers: building new strategies, improving existing strategies and adding new trading products, as well as improving the technology behind the trading. You’ll need to keep up to date and act on all the latest developments, analyse large amounts of trading and transaction data, generate insights, prioritise them and build solutions based on your findings. We will share more technical details in the interviews. The point is: there is no limit set by the company!

Hard Skills Requirements

• Strong Python skills (or Java or C++) - you have 1-3 years of coding experience, be that through work, study or personal project experience - we will test!
• Programming fundamentals (in any of C++, C#, Java, OOP)
• Understand blockchain basics: transactions, wallets, smart contracts, double spend, transactions pool, mining - we will test
• Have a general understanding overview of current defi landscape: DEX, aggregators, main protocols
• Experience interacting with defi protocols - lending, staking, trading - can be personal
• Excellent quantitative and analytical skills - we will test
• Advanced trading knowledge isn’t required but a strong willingness and curiosity to learn algorithmic, high-frequency, quantitative and market making trading is crucial

Other Requirements

• Have an owner mentality - you focus on ultimate result (short and long-term P&L for the company), focus on strategically growing the business for the future vs “cashing-in” fast
• Love problem solving, and love seeing your products work; you do whatever it takes to do what’s needed (trading, coding, analysing data, collaborating)
• Determined, ambitious yet humble, willing to work hard and learn on the way
• Like meritocracy and being judged by what you deliver
• Have an entrepreneurial mindset versus working 9-to-5 mentality; prepared to work non-standard working hours (since we are a high-growth startup operating in 24/7 crypto world)
• Like working in the team environment (not fully remote), at least >60% working from our London or Singapore office (COVID restrictions allowing)

Wintermute Offer

• A unique opportunity to work on very interesting projects, get the level of responsibility and ownership that would be unlikely at any other project or trading firm
• A unique opportunity to join one of the strongest and most successful DeFi teams globally
• Great company culture: informal, non-hierarchical, ambitious, highly professional yet collaborative and entrepreneurial
• A cool office in central London with a sci-fi touch
• We support significant flexibility in regards to working from home and working hours; however, we require hard/smart work and >60% work from the office; we are unable to accept remote candidates
• Weekly team events, such as team lunches, team dinners, team board games and Dota playing sessions; these are not obligatory in any sense, but this is what we like to do
• Aligned incentive structure: a significant part of your compensation is similar to that of owners - significant performance-based variable pay and the best thing - your contribution directly impacts both and the upside is unlimited
• We offer standard perks too, like pension, private health insurance, free food and office gym, but that’s probably not the right reason to join us
• We offer UK work permits and help with relocation

Write to us if you

• Love DeFi and have a passion for Blockchain technology, love coding, love problem solving
• Love building things
• Are curious about algorithmic trading and financial markets
• Are determined, ambitious yet humble, willing to work hard and learn on the way
• Like meritocracy and being judged by what you deliver
• Like working like an owner and not having a 9-to-5 or contractor mentality
• Like working in the team environment (not fully remote), at least >60% working from our London

Tips for Successful Application

• Only apply to us if you are genuinely interested or curious about this role and the space; this is not for someone who is just looking for “a job” or is looking to maximize their short-term fixed salary
• This is a London based role
• Do your research: look at our website and social media channels
• Write us a short, honest, and direct message if you’d like to apply. Tell us about why you are interested in crypto and market making in general and in Wintermute in particular.
• Do not send us generic copy paste applications, we are looking for authentic people who share our interests, values and ambitions! If you don’t have some obviously matching experience or skills, make sure you state very clearly what you can bring or how your experience is relevant (but note, we do require Python knowledge)
• Prepare to be tested on your Python knowledge. Your knowledge and ability to get things done fast is very important to us
• Do your homework on what hft/market making/algo trading is. (Hint: we are not in the business of position taking, directional betting, stock/token picking, technical analysis, “AI” (as in the buzz-word) and we are not a research business for the sake of research)
• We get a lot of applications, so unfortunately, we won’t be able to proceed if you simply press “submit button”; we do promise to reply to everyone who puts time and effort into making the application relevant!