Head of DeFi

As Head of DeFi at Monad Foundation, you lead the strategy, relationships, and hands-on execution that grows DeFi across the Monad network. This is a player-coach role: you set the roadmap and get into the weeds, advising builders on protocol design, orchestrating asset onboarding, deploying incentives with discipline, and ensuring the DeFi stack on Monad is robust and capital-efficient. You hold the full DeFi picture in your head and turn that knowledge into TVL, volume, and fees.

What you'll do

• Own DeFi growth strategy for the Monad network, prioritizing bets across lending, DEXs, stablecoins, RWAs, and yield infrastructure, measured by TVL, volume, stablecoin market cap, RWA market cap, and fees generated
• Execute end-to-end asset and protocol onboarding, coordinating across oracles, liquidators, DEX pool setup, curators, and bridging providers
• Advise DeFi builders deploying on the Monad network with high-conviction, actionable feedback on protocol mechanics, product gaps, and market positioning
• Activate your network of whales, liquid funds, curators, and blue-chip DeFi founders to kickstart early liquidity and protocol traction
• Bridge DeFi and TradFi/Fintech by representing the Foundation with senior institutional executives, translating yield generation opportunities into strategic terms they act on
• Drive incentive strategy, forming and defending opinions on which initiatives attract durable TVL per unit of spend versus which produce mercenary capital
• Manage a team of 2-3 DeFi specialists, setting priorities, maintaining execution tempo, and building a culture of rigor and bias for action

What you bring

• A track record of driving measurable growth in TVL, liquidity, or protocol adoption, with deep fluency across lending protocols like Aave, Morpho, and Euler, CDPs, DEXs, and yield-bearing stablecoins
• Strong opinions on asset quality and risk, able to research new interest-bearing assets and quickly assess bridging mechanics, liquidity depth, redemption windows, reserve transparency, and issuer controls
• A deep, pre-existing network among whales, liquid crypto-native funds, DeFi curators, and blue-chip protocol founders
• Executive presence and credibility with TradFi/Fintech C-suite, able to make DeFi concepts legible to institutional decision-makers without simplifying them
• The ability to see the full DeFi landscape, prioritize ruthlessly, and know when to move fast versus when to build consensus
• Proven leadership and management experience running a small, high-output team with clear direction and high trust
• Strong written and verbal communication skills that distill complexity into clarity without losing nuance

Nice to have

• Strong knowledge of trading and markets, able to think in expected value (EV) terms
• Experience deploying or managing liquidity across multiple chains
• Comfort reading Solidity and understanding smart contract risk at a conceptual level
• Experience working within a foundation, DAO, or decentralized contributor structure

Why work with us

• Tackle deeply complex and technically demanding problems with autonomy and impact
• Monad's core innovations offer developers and founders the best of both worlds: portability and performance, delivering a game-changer to power global on-chain finance
• Join a world-class team of exceptional, highly-motivated people
• Be part of a lean team working together to achieve very ambitious goals, united in a culture of collaboration, low ego, and high-quality output
• Work with a strong ecosystem that has attracted support from leading investors, builders, and long-term contributors

About Monad Foundation

Monad Foundation is a core contributor to the Monad protocol, a performant and parallel EVM Layer 1 blockchain. The team is dedicated to growing the impact of decentralized tech and helping decentralized applications reach global scale.