Senior DeFi Researcher

About ChainML

ChainML, the labs company behind Theoriq, is at the forefront of AI-driven decentralized finance by integrating AI with blockchain.

Theoriq is shaping the future of AI-powered DeFi through advanced agent swarm and coordination technology—unlocking the full potential of autonomous agentic finance and introducing a new liquidity layer to Web3. We champion decentralization to ensure an equitable distribution of AI's benefits while mitigating risks tied to centralized technology control.

We are a remote-first team and hire globally. For this role, we have a strong preference for candidates based in the United States or Canada. Exceptional candidates elsewhere are encouraged to apply.

About the role

Theoriq is seeking a Senior Quant – DeFi to design, test, and deploy production-grade DeFi strategies. In this role, you’ll be a leader in the research team and deeply hands-on: building models, running simulations, and translating high-conviction ideas into live strategies in collaboration with engineering. The ideal candidate has a track record of discovering alpha, has taken multiple strategies from research to mainnet with measurable P&L, is comfortable working directly with on-chain data, and maintains an active, respected presence across Web3 communities.

What you'll do

• Alpha discovery
• • Maintain a hypothesis pipeline across LP/CLMM, perps/options, basis/funding, lending/borrowing, yield curves (LST/LRT, Pendle-style), and cross-venue/cross-chain flows.
• Empirical validation
• • Build and run robust backtests and event-driven sims (tx/log level when needed).
  • Define objective functions (PnL in ETH/USD, Sharpe/Sortino, max DD), capacity, and sensitivity analyses.
• Specification & implementation
• • Write execution-ready strategy specs: signals, state, parameter bounds, entry/exit, rebalancing/hedging cadence, fail-safes, kill/scale rules.
  • Prototype and implement production code
  • Partner closely with other researchers and engineers through paper shadow prod, staying hands-on in validation and tuning.
• Risk & controls
• • Set inventory/leverage limits, liquidity/impact budgets, borrow/funding constraints; encode oracle/MEV/latency checks and circuit breakers.
• Monitoring & attribution
• • Define real-time and post-trade dashboards (fees vs. inventory vs. hedge P&L, slippage, borrow/funding, anomaly alerts).
  • Establish crisp go/hold/kill thresholds.
• AI-agent integration
• • Express strategies as agent policies/reward functions; contribute datasets, offline evals, and capital-at-risk ramp plans.
• Market intelligence
• • Track L2/rollup microstructure, intent layers, new primitives, venue/liquidity migrations.
  • Cultivate protocol/MM/data-provider relationships for early access.
• Documentation & comms
• • Produce clear research memos, runbooks, and postmortems; present results to product, risk, and leadership.

Qualifications

• Proven, verifiable DeFi P&L (e.g., CLMM LP with hedging, basis/funding, structured yield) with transparent attribution.
• Deep understanding of on-chain microstructure: AMMs (Uniswap v3/CLMM math), routing/MEV, oracles, gas/latency, L2 nuances.
• Strong empirical research skills: clean experiment design, skeptical inference, robustness checks, and ablations.
• Hands-on with Python + SQL for implementing strategies, backtests and data analysis; able to work with EVM logs/events and data from sources like The Graph, Dune, BigQuery or self-hosted archives.
• Practical risk mindset: position sizing, drawdown/tail-risk control, borrow/funding management, execution slippage/impact awareness.
• Ability to write concise, execution-ready specs and collaborate tightly with engineers who will implement and operate.
• Read-level Solidity literacy (to assess contracts, oracles, upgrade patterns); no heavy smart-contract dev required.
• Bonus: experience with agent/RL evaluation loops; MEV-aware execution; LST/LRT, Pendle curves, cross-margining, vault frameworks.
• Thrives in a fast-moving startup, embraces ambiguity, and upholds high standards for reproducibility, documentation, and ethics.