2x Quantitative Researcher/Engineer

Quantitative Trading & Market Microstructure Specialist - High-Performance DEX

Location: Remote - Global (Preference for candidates based in: Lisbon, Portugal / UAE / Switzerland / Singapore / Hong Kong / Brazil / USA / UK / Spain / Canada / France / Germany / Greece)

Compensation: $180K - $220K

We are building a high-performance blockchain operating system that fundamentally redefines what's possible on Ethereum by prioritizing unparalleled throughput, decentralization, and security. We are now expanding the team for O2, a new, early-stage project: a next-generation decentralized exchange (DEX) running on our modular execution layer. Designed as a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB), our goal is to build the fastest DEX ever constructed, leveraging parallel execution to unlock high-frequency trading efficiency fully on-chain.

You will play a foundational role, leveraging your expertise in market making and quantitative trading to model, simulate, and optimize the market behavior of our core CLOB protocol. This is a highly hands-on role where you will design and test trading strategy logic, build simulation frameworks, and collaborate with engineering and research to inform critical protocol-level design decisions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategy & Optimization: Leverage prior market making experience to run, tune, and improve automated trading strategies both on-chain and across centralized exchanges (CeFi).
• Liquidity Provision: Ensure consistent liquidity provision, real-time adaptation to market conditions, and reliable execution across multiple markets.
• Risk & Security: Identify and mitigate manipulative or adversarial behavior in markets, protecting the exchange and ensuring fair trading conditions. Analyse system architecture and trading logic for vulnerabilities, providing input on risk controls.
• Collaboration & Design: Collaborate with engineering, product, and research teams to design resilient trading bots and contribute to protocol-level market logic.
• Operations: Develop and refine operational workflows for monitoring, alerting, risk management, and daily trading routines (e.g., runbooks, escalation paths).
• Research & Simulation: Design and test strategy logic for liquidity provision and execution. Build simulation frameworks to evaluate pricing and order flow under real-world conditions.

Requirements

• Domain Experience: 3+ years of direct experience in market making, quantitative trading, or liquidity provision (crypto experience strongly preferred).
• Market Knowledge: Strong understanding of order book mechanics, market microstructure, and liquidity dynamics.
• Systems Experience: Hands-on experience with automated trading systems, including parameter tuning, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Technical Comfort: Comfort working close to code (Python, Rust, or similar), enough to prototype or review logic.
• Trading Environment: Familiarity with both CeFi and DeFi trading environments and their unique operational considerations.
• Operational Design: Ability to design structured operational flows (shift rotations, runbooks, escalation paths, monitoring).
• Mindset: High agency (takes proactive steps to drive projects), a hacker mindset (thinks like an adversary to spot risks), curiosity, and a bias toward action.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong background in quantitative analysis, algorithmic trading, or market microstructure.
• Experience with DeFi protocols, centralised exchanges, or on-chain trading bots.

Benefits

• Impact: Foundational role in building what is intended to be the fastest fully on-chain DEX using a groundbreaking CLOB model, defining the future of decentralized finance.
• Culture: Join a globally dispersed team united by innovation, high agency, and an empathetic culture. We value courage, optimism, and mission-driven substance over performative trends.
• Growth: Opportunity to dive deep into cutting-edge technologies (Ethereum Rollups, parallel execution) and rapidly expand in-house trading expertise.
• Compensation: Competitive compensation package (details provided upon inquiry).

Due to the high volume of applications we anticipate, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback to all candidates. If you do not hear back from us within 4 weeks of your application, please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion. We genuinely appreciate your interest and wish you the best in your job search.

Commitment to Equality and Accessibility:

At MLabs, we are committed to offer equal opportunities to all candidates. We ensure no discrimination, accessible job adverts, and providing information in accessible formats. Our goal is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace with equal opportunities for all. If you need any reasonable adjustments during any part of the hiring process or you would like to see the job-advert in an accessible format please let us know at the earliest opportunity by emailing human-resources@mlabs.city.

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